No ‘political gain’ means No liberal support.
Idon’t suppose it would surprise anyone to discover that among the “bicycling community” (everyone is a member of a “community” these days), support for the Keystone XL pipeline is nil; that avid cyclists hold much the same negative affection for oil and pipelines as vegetarians do for sausages and chicken wings.
Now there has not been, at least to my knowledge, any official poll to determine how the pedalling class feels about Keystone, but simple common sense easily leads to that truth. Even though the most stylish cyclists are often seen sealed from head to toe in vivid second skins of spandex, and are therefore heavily indebted to the availability of “non-renewable fossil fuels,” it’s a good guess that few among them will be found to be lovers and supporters of the oilsands.
Some things don’t actually need to be counted to know where people’s inclinations lie.
Take the lifetime pension and expense account accorded departing governors general. The pension alone comes to $150,000 a year (cost of living adjusted) for life, certainly enough to keep the toast and marmalade in stock, and which stretched over a single decade is a neat million and a half. My guess, without a poll, and especially during a period such as all are now enduring with half or three-quarters of the economy in a coma, is that most would see such a fat financial farewell as either excessive or even maddening.
Especially if there were a governor general who, without precedent I think, gave up the job voluntarily, who rose from the velvet cushions prematurely and bid goodbye to the soft duties and infrequent demands of the mainly symbolic office.
These, admittedly stray thoughts, visited the attention when reading a CBC report about a recent Angus reid poll — I had exhausted my stock of P.G. Wodehouse and was looking for something light to read — that found most Canadians were quite unperturbed by Joe Biden’s day-one cancellation of the Keystone pipeline.
Among its bouquet of non-surprises was the detail that, of those who voted for the Trudeau Liberals in the 2019 election, “77 per said they believed it would best for Ottawa to focus on priorities other than Keystone with Biden.”
That figure will hardly lift anyone’s toupee in shock. Oil rigs, pipelines and the petroleum industry are not the prime love objects of the current Liberal party. And as between Calgary and Ottawa right now, it’s the political version of Itchy and Scratchy from The Simpsons.
The next finding raised even less dust, as it was reported that “The share of NDP and Green voters polled who felt the same way was even higher — at 81 and 87 per cent, respectively.” Well, butter my barnacles and pass the pea soup, what a surprise. Greens and NDP not jumping to the support of Keystone? Massively indifferent or even supportive of Biden’s falling axe? Is the planet reversing its spin?
The shock findings continued to accumulate: “regionally, the survey shows how the Liberals have little to gain by bringing up Keystone XL again.” Well, that’s it then. If a government has little to gain — politically is the word missing here — then let the issue die and forget even a proper burial.
If however a government were to think a little, just a touch, beyond its political gain, and instead seek to service a different kind of gain, a moral gain, or a gain on a matter of principle, it might have responded differently.
If its thinking went beyond polls, perhaps it could have thought of standing up for a vital Canadian interest — it did with aluminum and steel — and perhaps it could have fired off some hard words, or contemplated some counter-response to the new u.s. administration. And made a point of condemning the Biden presidency for making the announcement without informing the Canadian government first. Courtesy counts.
That was however, with this current government, not to be. The same CBC story offered illumination on this point, too: “regionally, the survey shows how the Liberals have little to gain by bringing up Keystone XL again.”
Well, that’s absolutely it then. If, regionally, the Liberals have little to gain, why then — to hell with Keystone. If there is no “political” point for doing the right thing, why waste time even thinking about doing the right thing?
The final explosion of startling information from the poll will knock all readers back on their Barcaloungers. Can you believe that — take a deep breath — “Only in Alberta and Saskatchewan did a majority of those polled by the Angus reid Institute say they believe that the defence of Keystone XL should be placed above other priorities.”
Wow! Can you believe it? Alberta and Saskatchewan, two cold provinces miles and miles away from Toronto and Ottawa, defying what the poll tells us is almost a national consensus. Their odd stance might have something to do with energy and farming being the industrial base of these provinces. That energy and farming supply thousands of jobs (and possibly thousands more, were the energy industry were not seen as a pariah in the highest altitudes of the green Liberal government). That both, and especially Alberta, have been held up for a decade by rulings, protests, international opposition, their main resources landlocked, and bled dry during the good times with equalization payments to the federal treasury.
Oh, selfish Alberta, whining Saskatchewan. do you both not know if you have no “political gain” to offer to the Ottawa Liberals you have no right to hope for help? That no political gain to offer translates into indifference to the cancellation of Keystone, and a middle finger to your primary concerns?
Thank the Lord for Angus reid and his polls. We learn so much from them about the country we live in, government motivation, and to top it off, get a rare glimpse into the thinking of some outlying provinces.
POLITICAL VERSION OF ITCHY AND SCRATCHY FROM THE SIMPSONS.