Signs of (tentative) political evolution in Alberta

Alberta's Conservative Premier Jason Kenney claims to have been completely blindsided by Joe Biden's executive order to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline linking Alberta's oil sands with America's oil refineries. Everyone else saw it coming, and Biden made no secret of it throughout his whole presidential campaign. But Kenney is outraged - outraged, I say! - at this latest slap in the face (or "gut punch", as Kenney would have it) for Alberta and its oil industry. He is especially worried as he spent $1.5 billion of his province's money on an ill-advised gamble on the pipeline just last spring (in full knowledge of an upcoming American election).

A surprising number of other politicians, including Prime Minister Trudeau (albeit with a rather tame and tepid "disappointed"), are also in high dudgeon, although one has to wonder whether they are not secretly heaving sighs of relief. At least they can blame the Yanks for hammering yet another nail (as if more were needed) into the coffin of the oil sands, the bête noir of Canada's greenhouse gas emissions profile. And Trudeau, like most Canadians, just wants to move on.

It's good to know, though, that at least Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley is an evolved Westerner, and is willing to at least consider facing facts and moving past Alberta's traditional over-reliance on oil and gas. Addressing the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce this week, Ms. Notley took what for Alberta is a very radical and brave stance, and opined that Alberta needs to take advantage of the global investment in renewables and clean tech if it wants to continue to be an energy leader. (Sharp intake of breath all round.)

"We need to take control of our own destiny, and not tie our fortunes to projects outside our jurisdiction, subject to another nation's policies", she intoned. "We have to recognize where the world is going, and move with it". Amen to that. But Alberta has had its head in the (oil)sand for so long, that this necessary restructuring will be a long and painful process. In the meantime, though, Mr. Kenney's (and much of Alberta's) sky-is-falling whining is not helping anyone, least of all Albertans.

This was Ms. Notley's first major speech since stepping down from her position as Premier in 2019. It's good to know she is still kicking. Interestingly, though, she knows where Alberta's limits are, and declared herself unwilling to institute a sales tax of any kind in the province, despite the parlous state of its finances (Alberta is the only Canadian province without - and, until recent years, without the need for - a sales tax. 

This, of course, would be very far from an NDP philosophy in the rest of the country, but Alberta, as it never ceases to remind us, is "special" (read, spoiled and many degrees to the right). And Ms. Notley is a seasoned campaigner, and know that there is little point in being ideologically pure while remaining unelectable.