So get ready to say goodbye to carbon taxes and hello to a less strident tone in lecturing Alberta about its evil energy industry and the dire need to rapidly curtail emissions
Alberta has a retirement message ready to roll for Justin Trudeau when he inevitably bows to pressure and quits as prime minister.
This year, our province will almost certainly pump more oil than ever before and is picked to be the standout supplier on the global stage in 2025.
Not that Trudeau will relish such happy news, of course. But we never relished his leadership for the past nine years while he did all in his power to bring Alberta to heel, even if it meant crippling the country’s biggest export money-spinner in the process.
Because the one constant sustaining the Grits throughout their long history — and admittedly, they’ve been the dominant federal party during that time — is a remarkable ability to not only change horses in midstream but also to suddenly ditch policies recently touted as indispensable to Canada’s future.
So get ready to say goodbye to carbon taxes and hello to a less strident tone in lecturing Alberta about its evil energy industry and the dire need to rapidly curtail emissions.
Don’t imagine this means the Grits will actively help our province. They won’t, as there are no seats to gain by doing so given the deep-seated animosity toward them here. But at least they won’t go out of their way to constantly name and shame us as some blight upon the great and good land that’s their vision of Canada.
Meanwhile, such a changing of tune will likely spell the end of Environment Minister Stephen Guilbeault. Perhaps he can return to scaling the CN Tower in some rejigged global warming protest — if his body’s still up to it after years of sampling the good life as a cabinet minister. (At least his government pension should defray the cost of better climbing gear.)
Here in Alberta, oil exports were already touching record territory this spring, even before the opening of the TMX pipeline expansion to the West Coast, one that’s helping our province break the chokehold U.S. refiners held over the industry’s output. Another 590,000 barrels a day are expected to flow to markets such as China and India in the months and years ahead, something the Bank of Canada predicted would add a quarter of a percentage point to national GDP growth. And, according to accounting gurus Ernst and Young, that pipeline alone will contribute $9.2 billion to Canadian GDP and $2.8 billion in taxes over the next two decades.
Recently, the internationally renowned Oil Price Bulletin examined global energy demand and posed the rhetorical question: Who will emerge in 2025 as the big winner among all those producers as the world demands more oil?
Canada, The Unexpected Winner in the Global Oil Boom, was both the headline and subsequent answer.
This should be celebrated across this land, given how the proceeds in royalties and taxes fill various government coffers and can subsequently be spent on much-needed health care, education and infrastructure.
Yet, for the dreary years of this Trudeau regime, such success was reviled, with nonsense touted about vague “green jobs” readily replacing such bounty.
Time’s up on such stupidity, as it is on Trudeau.
As a former drama teacher, he’ll understand the words: exit stage left.
Chris Nelson is a regular columnist.