Singh responds to criticism from Alberta premier
FEDERAL NDP LEADER RESPONDS TO ALBERTA’S NOTLEY AFTER CRITICISM OF HIS OIL-IMPORT REMARKS
Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is hitting back at Rachel Notley after coming under scathing criticism from the Alberta premier last week for comments he made about oil imports from Saudi Arabia.
“I know that Premier Notley’s in a tough political fight. But I’ve always felt and I believe that personal attacks are beneath her,” he told the National Post Monday in an interview from Quebec, where he is beginning a week-long tour focused on clean energy. “That’s not my way and I think she’s better than that.”
The comments mark a departure for Singh, who has been careful not to criticize Notley directly, even as the two NDP leaders have positioned themselves on opposite sides of the pipeline debate — and even as Notley has become more vocal in distancing herself from Singh.
Singh also walked back his recent comments suggesting Canada should stop importing oil from Saudi Arabia, saying that’s “not (his) priority.”
Last week, Singh suggested on CBC’S Power & Politics that Canada could stop importing oil from the Gulf kingdom and consider importing from other countries “as an alternative.” His comments came in the wake of Saudi Arabia’s decision to expel Canada’s ambassador and freeze new trade with Canada after Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland publicly criticized the recent arrest of women’s rights activists in that country.
“There’s other nations that we can look at in terms of access to oil and we should look at that as well,” Singh told host Vassy Kapelos. “I think we should take a hard look at: does it make sense to continue to have … trade relations with a country that has such a bad track record.”
The interview was quickly ridiculed by Western politicians, who argued that Canada should rely on its own oil resources rather than looking to other countries. “Just embarrassing,” tweeted Alberta United Conservative leader Jason Kenney. “NDP leader says Canada should import oil from other countries, rather than accept that a pipeline to move Western Canadian oil to Eastern Canada is a good idea.”
During last year’s leadership race, Singh came out against the Energy East pipeline, which would have moved bitumen from Alberta and Saskatchewan to New Brunswick.
The proposal was cancelled last October.
Singh backtracked on Monday, saying his real priorities are ending Canada’s arms trade deal with Saudi Arabia and investing in renewable energy — both established tenets of the NDP platform.
“A question was put to me and I said we could consider all sorts of options,” Singh said regarding his comments on ceasing oil imports from Saudi Arabia. “Some options were put forward and I said, you know, we can look at it, but that’s not my priority and it’s never been.”
Perhaps the most cutting response to Singh’s appearance on Power & Politics came from Notley, who made scathing comments about her federal counterpart in an interview with the Edmonton Journal’s Graham Thomson on Friday, and laughed out loud when asked about Singh’s position on Saudi oil. “It struck me that that was a thing that maybe he should have thought through before he said it,” she said.
Notley first came out swinging against Singh back in May, shortly before the federal government announced plans to buy the controversial Trans Mountain pipeline from Houston-based Kinder Morgan.
Singh, who had previously avoided taking a definitive stance on Trans Mountain, tweeted that it was “clear this pipeline should not be built.”
Notley, who says thousands of jobs would be created by the Trans Mountain project, designed to nearly triple the capacity of an existing pipeline between Edmonton and Burnaby, announced at the time that Singh was “absolutely, fundamentally, incontrovertibly incorrect.”
On Friday, in the wake of Singh’s recent announcement that he plans to run in a byelection in Burnaby South, the heart of opposition to Trans Mountain, Notley went further. “I am a New Democrat that comes from the part of the party that understands that you don’t bring about equality and fairness without focusing on jobs for regular working people,” she told the Journal. “To forget that and to throw them under the bus as collateral damage in pursuit of some other high-level policy objective is a recipe for failure and it’s also very elitist.”
On Monday, Singh said he and Notley still agree on most issues, but criticized her approach to the pipeline dispute. “I think that we can have a disagreement on this,” he said. “It just doesn’t have to resort to personal attacks. And my position is I think it’s a tough decision to make, but it’s the right decision to invest in the future.”
This isn’t the first time Singh has had to amend comments that have landed him in hot water. In November, he walked back a suggestion that bilingualism requirements be waived for Supreme Court justices in order to encourage Indigenous candidates, which garnered pushback from the NDP caucus.