Alberta

Sitting at a cafe terrace overlooking a park commemorating the birthplace of the vast oil industry in the western Canadian province of Alberta, Audrey Cerkvenac and Ernestine Dumont, wrestled with a political dilemma.

In a province long the epicenter of Canada’s conservative politics, the two older women had been unwavering conservative supporters.

But now, as Monday’s provincial election approached, they said they had been turned off by the strident right turn the province’s conservative party had taken as it ruled Alberta during the pandemic, fueled by extremist protests against Covid restrictions and baseless claims about vaccines.

NYT hit piece …

CBC News poll suggests United Conservative Party headed for victory in Alberta

Imagine, if you can, an Ontario premier or member of the provincial parliament badmouthing that province’s auto sector and fighting to stop the creation of a new auto plant in the province — because automobiles (even electric ones) and manufacturing creates greenhouse gasses.

Alberta is releasing an emissions reduction plan on Wednesday premised on the idea that the province, not Ottawa, is best positioned to implement environmental policies. For the first time, the province as a whole will have a goal of being carbon neutral by 2050 – the same aim as major oil sands producers, and the federal commitment for all of Canada.

Danielle Smith says the “extreme green environmental movement” wants to use the federal government’s proposed “just transition” legislation to shut down the province’s oil and gas industry, which the Alberta premier has repeatedly said she wants to maintain and grow.

“Just Transition: I would just ask you to look at how the extreme green environmental movement uses that language. They use it as language to talk about completely phasing out the oil & natural gas industry,” Smith said in a video posted on Twitter on Jan. 19.

Just Transition: I would just ask you to look at how the extreme green environmental movement uses that language. They use it as language to talk about completely phasing out the oil & natural gas industry.#cdnpoli #abpoli #ableg pic.twitter.com/h47DCfB2x2

— Danielle Smith (@ABDanielleSmith) January 19, 2023

If you’ve ever wondered whether politics does indeed make for unlikely bedfellows, just take a peek under the covers in Alberta.

In the run-up to the provincial election this spring, Premier Danielle Smith is receiving a boost from two of the unlikeliest of sources: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley.

That’s not to say Trudeau and Notley are deliberately trying to help Smith, but it is exactly what’s happening.

The federal government failed dismally to help 1,100 Alberta workers during the coal industry shutdown. Now it pledges “just transition” for many thousands of oil and gas workers, with legislation coming this year.

There is nothing to show we can trust the federal Liberals with such an upheaval. In fact, the word straight from Ottawa shows the feds simply aren’t up to it. This should concern everyone, including those who want the industry to meet climate goals.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Tuesday that the federal government’s so-called just transition plan is a “big threat” to the province’s oil and natural gas industry.

At a news conference, she said the language that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government are using when they talk about just transition “is language that they used when they phased out the coal industry.”

“It’s a social justice term,” said Smith. “To use that terminology, they are virtue signalling to an extreme base that is openly advocating to shut down oil and natural gas.”