Jason Stephan was elected as the Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta representing the constituency of Red Deer-South on April 16, 2019, and re-elected on May 29, 2023.If the truth is disliked or disbelieved, does it make it untrue? Freedom and prosperity will never be found in lies. Justin Trudeau was the worst prime minister Canada ever had.Yet many voted for and enabled Trudeau and his ilk to attack Alberta for over ten years. Trudeau was so bad that any successor to him will look good.So what of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) for an oil pipeline? Some in Ottawa act as if they are doing Alberta a favour by signing the MOU. Does that mean Alberta should now be quiet and to be a good colony?No.Canada’s Constitution continues to be stacked against Alberta, and that will NEVER change due to its amending formula that locks Alberta into a constitutional straitjacket.The Maritime Provinces have 30 seats in the Senate. Alberta has about double their population and only six seats in the Senate. But this will never change, the Maritime Provinces will block it. Albertans voted in a 2021 referendum to get rid of equalization. But Albertans are ignored, and equalization will never be removed. Why? Because most of the other provinces want to keep taking many BILLIONS in equalization funded by Albertans and they will block its removal.Ottawa made Canada un-investable due to its stupid laws and policies. Did Carney get rid of these laws and policies? No. Carney chose to enact the “One Canadian Economy Act”, consolidating even more power in Ottawa, deciding which projects get special treatment to bypass its stupid laws and policies, with the government picking winners and losers.What is Ottawa’s motive for the MOU? Is it because Albertans are already paying more than $20 billion net to Ottawa every year, Canada is in a recession, and Ottawa is desperate for more of Albertans’ money?Is it because Alberta will be having a referendum in October about independence? Would there have been a MOU absent this referendum And what happens if the leverage no longer remains? The truth is that Albertans are perpetually at the mercy of whomever Central and Eastern Canada elect as prime minister, who in this corrupted system, has the powers of a de facto king between elections.Ottawa bureaucrats, technocrats, politicians, including some Alberta career politicians conflicted by Ottawa’s gold plated pensions, media hostile to Alberta, socialist politicians in other provinces, some unaccountable First Nation chiefs and activist judges (collectively, the “Ottawa Establishment”) want to stop Albertans from having a vote as it challenges the status quo.Yet, the Achilles heel of the Ottawa establishment is its record.While Canada has the potential to be the most free and prosperous country in the world, it is not, and it never will be.Canada’s GDP per capita is falling like a rock. On average, the US now produces about 50% more in GDP per person than Canada.The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development predicts Canada will be the worst-performing advanced economy among its 38 member countries in terms of real GDP per capita growth over the next few decades, including being 42% behind the US for the 2030-2060 period.The average Canadian is, and will become, much poorer than the average American. Much of this loss is due to stupid laws and policies emanating out of Ottawa, some of which erode individual freedoms in favour of a nanny state.Ottawa has made itself a danger and a threat to freedom and prosperity. Ottawa and many of its institutions have become broken and corrupted. If the definition of a loser is one who loses, what of those running Canada?Carney said that infrastructure projects would be approved and built at “lightning speed”. The MOU says construction of the pipeline will not commence until at least September 2027, subject to further delays by some groups demanding payouts, supported by activist judges, thereby killing jobs and suffocating national economic competitiveness.No pipeline company is going to put billions of investor capital at risk because of this lawfare or lawless physical blockades without government backstops to de-risk the un-investable environment.The MOU imposes billions of costs on taxpayers and producers into a carbon capture scheme that has no business case absent massive subsidies.The MOU reduces Alberta’s competitiveness, locking in Trudeau’s industrial carbon tax at $95 per tonne, and rising, while the US and other competitors have much lower, or no carbon tax.The MOU is not good enough for Alberta. Alberta is a land of freedom and prosperity. We must be vigilant to keep it that way.Jason Stephan was elected as the Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta representing the constituency of Red Deer-South on April 16, 2019, and re-elected on May 29, 2023.
