Moe’s outdated oil loyalty doing us no favours

In the wake of the federal election, plenty of commentators have rightly criticized Scott Moe’s petulant response to the democratic will of the Canadian public. But the problems underlying Moe’s attempt to use the threat of separatism to bully elected MPS into treating a hung Parliament as a Conservative majority go far beyond his dangerous rhetoric and unreasonable demands.

Instead, our recognition of the faults with Moe’s distraction tactics needs to include a closer look at what he’s actually distracting us from. And it’s Moe and his backers who are leaving us utterly unprepared for a world that is coming, whether we accept it or not.

Let’s start by noting that we do have every reason for concern about the state of our economy. We unfortunately lead the country in consumer debt per capita, while a higher proportion of people are behind on their mortgages than at any time since the end of the Devine years. And it’s true that some of the damage can be traced to the end of the oil boom, which once held out the promise of windfall income to owners and workers alike.

Meanwhile, Moe’s choices to slash public services and attack workers have made matters worse — both by making incomes and employment more precarious for people working in the public sector, and by reducing the supports available for those of us who need a helping hand.

But those real worries don’t offer any rational justification for the demands being made by Moe and the rest of the pseudo-separatist movement.

A carbon tax of a few pennies on the dollar — particularly paired with a consumer rebate — represents a minuscule part of the disconnect between incomes and costs of living. Moe

Moe and his backers ... are leaving us ... unprepared for a world that is coming.

has yet to explain how a pipeline to lock in the international shipment of Alberta bitumen via the British Columbia coast would accomplish anything at all for Saskatchewan as a province (as opposed to the Saskatchewan Party’s Calgary-based donors).

And Moe’s push for separation and isolation is even less defensible. The deliberate political destabilization of our region would only make matters worse for our economy, just as Brexit has led to disaster for the U.K. And that’s doubly so when a complaint about access to international markets is paired with a threat to become a landlocked country.

At the same time, any look at the world around us shows why Moe’s demands and plans are utterly counterproductive.

The effects of the climate crisis are becoming ever more obvious, even for those who have operated in denial as long as possible.

The world continues to face increasingly extreme weather, causing extensive displacement, property damage and threats to life and health.

But now planned systems are also breaking down: most recently, widespread blackouts affecting millions in California have driven home the folly of clinging to legacy energy systems that aren’t suited to survive the effects of a changed climate.

And while we’re conspicuously failing to adapt to a shift in energy sources, the rest of the world is leaving us behind.

Institutional investors are rapidly pulling capital from the extraction of dirty energy.

Car manufacturers are planning shifts toward electric vehicles, and in some cases phasing out combustion engines entirely. And realistic plans are being developed to power the world with offshore wind energy and other renewable sources.

In the end, no level of fealty to the oil sector represents a reasonable economic plan when export markets are evaporating. And we’re best served separating ourselves from a governing party bent on clinging to fantasies of booms gone by, rather than acknowledging the world is changing.