Harry Shannon
My letter to the Toronto Star – which wasn’t published.
Background: The Canadian federal election in late October left Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with a minority government. They won no seats in the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. Alberta is much larger in population, and the recently elected premier Jason Kenney has been insisting that the federal government helps Alberta as it goes through difficult economic times. There is also talk of “Western separation” from the rest of Canada – a tricky proposition for a landlocked province!
Even if I understood the details , I wouldn’t take up a lot of space explaining the ins and outs of the relationship between the province and the federal government. I’ll just note that Alberta’s economy is very much dependent on oil and gas, two fossil fuels. Since the price of oil is down and there is more and more concern about carbon emissions, there are problems.
So, my letter:
I’m from Ontario, and I realize I don’t understand Western Canada, Alberta in particular. So I would like to ask the Premier Jason Kenney some questions.
- Many people like me didn’t like Stephen Harper. But we accepted the election results, much of time with the Tories in a Parliamentary minority. Yet now the Liberals have a minority we hear talk of western separation. Do you believe in democracy?
- Science has shown for decades that we have to get off fossil fuels. Why have successive Alberta governments wasted those decades and failed to realign the province’s economy?
- Are you now helping to retrain workers from oil patch?
- Have you built a renewable energy industry to reduce your province’s reliance on oil and gas?
- Why do you allow over 100,000 old and disused oil and gas wells to remain in place indefinitely without proper cleanup?
- How many jobs would be created if you insisted they are cleaned up over the next 10 years.
I can’t help thinking of Upton Sinclair’s quote: “It is difficult for a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”