PM MUST PRIORITIZE ALBERTA
The rest of Canada wouldn’t know it from much of the media coverage, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s latest visit to Calgary was a disaster. The PM was met by one of the largest crowd of protesters he’s ever faced. Albertans are so frustrated by the Liberal government’s treatment of them that hundreds took to the streets over the weekend in protest.
It’s hard to blame them. Trudeau’s attitude to Alberta has ranged from neglect to basically flipping them the middle-finger.
“We have the right to be angry,” writes Sun columnist Rick Bell. “Still no pipeline in the ground while we still pay a carbon tax. Selling our oil at bargain prices. High unemployment. One in four downtown offices empty. Investment drying up.”
That just about sums it up. Oh yeah, that and Trudeau’s previous comment about how we need to “phase out” the oilsands.
We’d like to call that line a gaffe. But a gaffe is when you misspeak. When you make a mistake and say what you didn’t mean to say.
Was that really a gaffe? Or was it a window into Trudeau’s real views about a sector that is a key driver of the economy?
If so, that would explain why four key pipelines — Energy East, Trans Mountain, Northern Gateway and Keystone XL — have failed to launch under Trudeau’s watch.
It would also explain his relative inaction on the file.
Many Albertans are frustrated that Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau don’t offer the same concern and action for their oil sector as they do for job-rich industries in other provinces. There were, for example, no Albertafriendly measures in the fall economic update, despite specific measures for other sectors like media.
“Imagine if Ontario’s auto sector or Quebec’s aerospace industry were in crisis,” Postmedia columnist Licia Corbella wrote, after interacting with protesters. “It would have led and dominated Morneau’s speech.”
The wounds are real. The emotions are raw. These protesters have nothing to apologize for. It’s Trudeau who needs to make a pivot in how he deals with the over four million Albertans who have repeatedly gotten the short end of the stick from the current government.
Trudeau needs to make it a priority to show Albertans that they matter.