Premier’s bombast is not statesmanship

Rational discourse works better than issuing ultimatums, says Sarath Peiris.

At a crucial time when a divided country needs rational political leadership, Premier Scott Moe’s blustering demand for a “new deal with Canada” that essentially requires a federal Liberal minority government to adopt the Conservatives’ agenda is unhelpful and damaging.

Rather than serve as an extinguisher to douse the fires of alienation Moe says are burning in the Prairie Provinces, his proposal that claims a Liberal minority government backed by the NDP or Bloc Quebecois is lacking a legitimate mandate is a dangerous nod toward western separatist nonsense.

Moe’s demands for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau begin with a call to cancel the federal carbon tax — a campaign promise of Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer. Moe’s Saskatchewan Party, which didn’t implement an alternative levy to meet federal guidelines meant to curb greenhouse gas emissions has long opposed the carbon tax.

Moe has said it kills jobs, but that claim isn’t proven by Saskatchewan’s overall employment statistics. He has claimed it hurts family finances, but federal rebates more than offset the higher costs.

While Moe’s demand to rescind the tax in Saskatchewan may find a ready audience among Sask. Party supporters and others who reject “small c” conservative orthodoxy that market pricing is the best way to influence individual spending decisions, the election results show two-thirds of voting Canadians supported parties whose agendas contained carbon pricing and climate action.

Even in Saskatchewan, where Moe is supposed to govern in the interest of all, more than 190,000 voters supported the NDP, Liberals or Greens. That’s one-third of the votes garnered by the Conservatives who won all 14 federal seats, but still a sizable number at whom the premier is thumbing his nose.

Moe’s second demand is for a commitment from Trudeau to negotiate a new equalization formula that’s fair to Saskatchewan and Alberta. It’s reasonable enough, but seems ironic to those familiar with Saskatchewan history.

The current equalization formula was put in place by the Stephen Harper government in 2014, with little opposition from Brad Wall’s Saskatchewan Party government in which Moe was a cabinet minister. It was Wall’s government that dropped a lawsuit initiated by Lone Calvert’s former NDP government over Harper reneging on an equalization commitment that would have seen Saskatchewan receive $800 million annually.

As for Moe’s demand that the federal government develop a plan to ensure development of pipelines to get exports from Saskatchewan and Alberta to international markets, it would require co-operation and a willingness to horse-trade by all participants in Canada’s political process.

If there’s a true commitment by leaders to work in the national interest — read advancing the western energy industry with pipeline construction — not just to engage in political brinksmanship, could not the Conservatives support the Liberals in a one-time vote to get it done if the Greens, NDP or BQ prove an obstacle?

Naive? For sure. But minority governments elsewhere get things done with intelligent co-operation instead of resorting to angry threats of secession.

We should expect more from Moe, who needs to demonstrate national leadership at this juncture instead of pandering to ill-informed notions of separatism in two landlocked provinces whose economies rely heavily on exports via sea shipping.

Yes, Moe faces a provincial election next year, and a fight with the feds always makes for good politics at home. But given the weak state of the Saskatchewan NDP Opposition, it’s not as if he’s facing an uphill fight that requires this amount of belligerence.

There’s no doubt many people in Alberta and Saskatchewan are frustrated and alienated by a federal government and prime minister who seem to give legitimate western concerns short shrift in trying to balance competing regional demands in a far-flung country.

But Moe and Alberta’s Jason Kenney will do better to emulate Manitoba’s Brian Pallister and New Brunswick’s Blaine Higgs with rational discourse on finding a way forward rather than issue ultimatums.

Alberta’s former premier Peter Lougheed proved it can be done in his battles with Pierre Trudeau. What Canada needs are such statesmen who look at the long-term interests of their provinces and the country, not shortterm gains that further cleave national divisions.