For the benefit of anyone who didn’t read last Wednesday’s column, but wants to get to the end of this offering without wondering “What’s my point?”, I have to first introduce the mitigating factors that make it difficult to REASON during political turmoil.
When it comes to isolating factors that interfere in this process, and in particular with respect to Alberta’s “separatists” (or as I call them, “The Unhinged”), this unfortunately requires our recognition of certain chaos-creating opinionated trolls who do not add anything meaningful to the discussion process. That process must be followed in confronting Alberta’s (and Saskatchewan’s) “unhinged” attempting to tear this country apart, so let’s just get started on this purging of irrelevancies.
Let’s start by eliminating from this discussion those whose increasingly irrelevant banners reek of Conservative campaign rhetoric mouthed during the Covid-19 pandemic, namely those who want to still believe that our nation’s ills must be placed at the feet of, first, “Justin” and the “Liberal Party”, and now PM Mark Carney.
At the moment, their ire feeds upon the premise that somehow we once again have an “undemocratic” Liberal majority able to continue its eleven year rule through trickery and manipulation of the political system. By generating such fairy tale conspiracy theories they make themselves forever irrelevant by their lack of understanding of Canada’s political system, much less our version of democracy. It is our political parties that establish policy, while its leader must labour at seeking direction as to how that policy is carried forward as per its members’ requests.
As well, I’m excluding from this discussion any “opinion” that might come from those claiming the World Economic Forum (WEF) bears sole responsibility for our economic woes. Their conspiracy irrelevancies find foundation in the fact that our PM, Mark Carney found himself wed to this Davos-based cabal, first by his representing two nations as their nation’s bank Governor and then by his business interests, specifically Brookfield Asset Management. However, now fully ensconced as the spokesperson for our nation, Carney is in a conflict of interest because the federal government will soon be spending over $1 billion “purchasing heat pumps”, a product of one of BAM’s asset management portfolios – even though Carney has divested himself of such corporate connection.
But what is missing from the historical lexicon of the WEF is that its first memberships came from corporate America whose sole goal had nothing to do with international trade or economic power. It was purely motivated by two factors – reducing corporate tax level in principally the United States, while moving their manufacturing plants offshore to exploit Third World nations cheaply obtained labour forces.
Unfortunately, the one group that falls for the illogic created by WEF and anti-federal government trolls is Alberta’s separatist movement like Take Back Alberta’s founder David Parker.
Just what they want to “take back” is unclear. What they’re really attempting to accomplish is to remove any influence the federal government might wish to impose on economic development within the province as is dictated by federal and international law.
Were it not for the lack of thought echoing throughout the messages being sent by a huge segment of UCP MLA’s and the premier, Parker could already have become a punchline in an online Dilbert meme. Unfortunately, Premier Smith, having signed a Memorandum of Understanding tied to federal obligations, has begun a dangerous campaign of defying Canadian constitutional law by seeking to ask voters in the upcoming election to whether or not they want to vote on a referendum. A “Yes” outcome would signify that Albertans want to “separate” from Canada, irrespective of its treaty and international law obligations. For the rest of Canada, Smith’s advocacy as to illegally advocating for a separatist-supported referendum supporting the province’s separatist movement was seen for what it truly is: Smith’s feverishly wanting to hold onto the leadership of the UCP, the majority of which constitute MLA’s requiring her to support Parker in order to retain that position.
In an Op—Ed online piece “Danielle Smith has just made Canada a soft target”, columnist Gregory Jack lays out a likely scenario in which the Trump administration could during its upcoming negotiations respecting CUSMA, the Trump renegotiated bastardization of the North American Free Trade Agreement once agreed to during Prime Minister Mulroney’s tenure in office.
As Jack sees it, U.S. negotiators already know that there are Canadians living in Alberta and Quebec who’ve openly expressed a willingness to vacate the Canadian confederation, so why not just join the U.S.A. as its 51st state?
During the CUSMA negotiation, the Canadian delegation must negotiate with one voice on the key components of our economy: “energy, autos, agriculture, critical minerals, steel, aluminum, finance, services, procurement, and border management.” However, Alberta’s stake in these negotiations “is central to oil, gas, petrochemicals, agricultural exports, carbon policy, pipelines, electricity, and critical minerals”; as such, then, what’s to stop the American negotiating team from offering Alberta special access to the American market in return for Canada’s concessions in other areas of negotiation, thereby increasing the tensions between the other nine province and Alberta?
We have to now recognize that Smith has truly left Carney “in between a rock and a hard place” as she tries to retain her own power base. What we as a nation must realize, however, is that she’s been put in this position by Alberta’s own role in creating the addiction Canada now suffers from in its relationship to oil resource management.
Following the discovery of the tar sand oil bonanza in central Alberta, the province started its reign in this “drug market” by becoming the cartel distributing the drug world-wide while enjoying the profits of its endeavours. The Trudeau government, in recognizing the increasing signs of addiction offered treatment in the form of the National Energy Program, but were rebuffed, only to see successive Alberta governments then begin to inject the profits into its own self-serving veins. The end result is that, with the $4 billion royalty funds it receives from its principal “drug pusher”, the United States, for all intents and purposes the province is now bankrupt, both economically and morally.
Does Carney have a way out of this mess Of course he does, but for it to be successful, he will require the full support of premiers Kinew, Ford, and ironically, our own Scott Moe. For now, however, that’s a topic that will have to be examined in next week’s column.
Ken MacDougall is a retired teacher and former candidate for the federal NDP.
