Tuesday, July 08, 2025

Memo to Mark Carney

You can support every oil and gas initiative proposed by the Alberta government until the cows come home and you will realize absolutely no political reward for it. That is guaranteed. Criminy, your predecessor bought a freaking pipeline and the Liberals were shut out of Alberta during the subsequent election.

However, supporting these initiatives will cost you votes in places that you cannot afford to lose support, namely Ontario and Quebec. You would be giving a moribund NDP a great gift, leading to a split in the progressive vote in Ontario and a Conservative victory.

By all means, support the removal of internal trade barriers. Support the development of energy corridors that will allow Canadian electricity to flow east and west, instead of south. Hell, support railway corridors and high speed rail in such places as the Windsor-Quebec corridor and between Edmonton and Calgary if you want to initiate grand Canadian infrastructure projects. However, do not support pipelines, they will not help you politically and there is no business case for them. They may provide some jobs for a short time but they will be huge white elephants that will suck funds that can go towards projects and programs that will actually help Canadians in the long-term.

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