Trudeau Liberals crash to earth

It’s not always easy holding middle ground

Hubris, in Greek mythology, was followed by nemesis, or as it has come down to us, “pride goeth before a fall.”

The pride of the Trudeau Liberals is well known, and of a particularly noxious kind: that special blend of moral arrogance and conceit in their own cleverness — the belief, reinforced in a thousand mutual tweets, not only that they know best but that they are the best, sure of advancing, destined to win. This week they seemed, if not to have actually begun to plummet earthward, then certainly to have tested the gods’ patience to the limit.

Across several important files, the Liberals have tried to reconcile their belief in their own superior virtue with their desire for worldly success by insisting that they were not obliged to choose between them because, in fact, no choices needed to be made.

They could be both for saving the planet and for building pipelines, both for Aboriginal reconciliation and for resource development, both for progressive social values and for free trade.

That these positions are not as incompatible as partisans of both the right and the left would suppose is a reasonable enough premise. But the middle ground in politics can be as treacherous as it is inviting; the two extremes can as easily combine to devour any moderate interlopers as they can be separately marginalized.

• Justin Trudeau is standing firm on his government’s commitment to build the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and to its national climate-change plan — both of which were put in jeopardy by a bombshell court ruling that overturned federal approval for the project.

The government intends to move forward to get the pipeline expansion built “in the right way,” the prime minister said Friday, indicating that the government accepts the Federal Court of Appeal’s criticism of the approval process.

The court ruled Thursday that the National Energy Board’s environmental assessment of the project was fatally flawed because it ignored the potential impact of increased oil tanker traffic off British Columbia’s coast. It also ruled that the federal government had not fulfilled its duty to meaningfully consult with affected Indigenous groups.

“We are taking the time now to understand the court ruling, which addresses two things that are very important to this government — getting the science and the environmental protections right and making sure we are walking forward in a true path of reconciliation and partnership with Indigenous Peoples,” Trudeau said after an event in Oshawa, Ont.

“We’re going to continue to move forward to get this pipeline built in the right way by acknowledging what the court has said.”

Thursday’s court ruling prompted a furious Alberta Premier Rachel Notley to announce that her province is withdrawing from the controversial national climate change plan and will stay out until the federal government gets its act together, as she put it.

But Trudeau said Notley’s move doesn’t alter the federal commitment to the national climate change plan — or have any impact on it for at least a few years.

“I’ve always said, if there are provinces that don’t want to participate in this climate change plan, the federal government will do it alone.”

However, he said that won’t be an immediate issue with Alberta since that province’s carbon pricing plan remains in place and “is equivalent to the targets set by the federal government, at least for the next few years.”

In a report to clients Friday, Scotiabank predicted that the court ruling will delay the pipeline expansion by at least one year and “increases the likelihood that the project is abandoned altogether.”

But Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi said in an interview that the federal government is analyzing the court ruling and hopes to “find a path forward on this as quickly as possible so that we can resume construction” on the pipeline project.

Sohi suggested the government has already taken steps to address the potential for an oil spill, with its $1.5-billion oceans protection plan, and to further engage Indigenous groups — steps which occurred after the court hearing began and were, thus, not considered in the ruling.