There are a thousand inspirational wall hangings and memes and coffee mugs that all exhort similar messages, to think positively, to avoid negative energy and negativity in general, that humans are just better overall by doing so. They are in general all correct. The words are simple, high-quality life advice that we probably know deep down but that are hard to live by. Which is why so many of those things are sold. We need the reminders. A lot of people have made careers doing exactly that, saying the same old things in slightly new ways and earning millions. Which is kind of annoying in that it seems disingenuous, to be peddling vital life lessons in not a monk-like way but in a traveling elixir salesman kind of way. Big pearly white grins and a dash of stage charisma and look at that, the entire crowd is emptying their wallets in sheer happiness from hearing what they’ve heard a thousand times before. It’s enough to make one want to punch the slick marketeers in the head.
See? That’s how close negative energy is. It’s just that easy. There’s a reason we aren’t in some perpetual state of mental bliss; the complexities of life are highly effective at overriding the dopamine hits.
All these thoughts came crashing in last week, speaking of dopamine hits, while attending a luncheon with a lot of people in attendance. The event was the CAOEC (Canadian Association of Energy Contractors) spring luncheon. Someone dropped out of a lunch time presentation and thus the empty seat that was offered to me, and so I went, mostly expecting the highlight to be the grub. And the people in the audience. Boots on the ground energy people are awesome to be around, full of energy and can-do attitude. I sat in a room, a big room, that also included a federal Liberal cabinet minister as keynote speaker – Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources. As he rose to the podium to speak, a respectable round of applause greeted him. I did not participate. Not even a twitch. He was going to have to earn it. The past ten years will not be erased from memory for a very long time, and while this guy might not have been in the front lines of federal “governance” the whole time, his party and its architecture most definitely were.
But lo and behold, he did it. Hodgson made me clap. He went out of his way to make a point, multiple times (as recorded by Global News who captured these things; I was too paralyzed for note-taking): “This government and Canadians now understand that energy is the engine of Canada’s economy.” He made the same point loudly, and often, to the point where my spidey senses were on high alert. We get it, you love us now. Let go of my leg, sheesh.
But it was a great thing to say, and I don’t mean to make light of that; it is significant that he wanted to drive that point home and it is worth parsing. “This government” now understands – trying to underline the point that things are different now, and they know a difference is relevant. “…and Canadians” now understand – pointing out what is reflected in national polls, that sentiment has shifted, that the general population now understands the value of the oil and gas industry, and that it did not seem to five years ago (see: oblique accusations to ‘old government’ of Trudeau). “Energy is the engine of Canada’s economy” – another piece of relevant messaging. Trudeau/Guilbeault/Butts/Mckenna/Wilkinson…all key members of the previous government that worked hard to distance themselves from the industry, to downplay its significance.29dk2902lhttps://boereport.com/29dk2902l.html
Even in that one repeated point were a lot of messages that were very good to hear, and welcome news to the audience.
The question is, now what. For 10 years we were governed by squirrels. Actually scratch that. Squirrels have pure motives. We were governed by people who knew nothing about governance. They were like children. Idealistic, wanting to give every homeless person a hamburger and a new house. Wanting to save the environment in ways so wildly impractical that only childish enthusiasm could have propelled them.
But again, now what. What is the North Star for this government? They are taking energy seriously because they have to. What about everything else? Foreign interference in elections. Central bank digital currencies. A drug problem that drives are largest trading partner crazy brought about by sloppy immigration policies which have not been fixed. A globalist mentality that seeks to tie us to anyone than to our natural trading partner with whom we will never ever be separated, and for whom will always be our largest trading partner. Much is made of how recalcitrant the US has become over trade issues; very little is made about how Canada has been dragging its feet for years on things that it knows bug the US very much. Are we taking the drug trade seriously, when the poor police can hardly be bothered to pursue criminals with the knowledge that laws are toothless? We complain about tariffs, then stand resolutely in defiance over outrageous dairy tariffs that we ourselves impose and refuse to talk about. Is that being a good trading partner? Are we taking national defence seriously, or a reacting to a gun to our head? As a matter of fact that brings up the bigger question, what are we doing only because there is a gun to our head, versus what would we really want to do, we being the government?
All this speculation isn’t an attempt to take on the role of opposition, one of the grimiest jobs in the world, whereby the imperative is to run counter to absolutely everything the governing party does. No quarter, no exception, no thinking allowed. Just bark the opposite. That isn’t helpful.
And it is cool to see the media even starting to ask challenging questions of the government, including the likes of Andrew Coyne on a CBC news show that usually appears to be acutely aware that Liberals feed them and Conservatives will not. Mr. Coyne has been asking tough questions, such as this clip where he challenges the federal government’s sovereign wealth fund concept in an articulate way. He still has a wild political slant to his feed, which makes Coyne’s criticism of the Carney government even more stark. Other clips from the same panel if usually Lib-friendly voices show growing concern at the lack of genuine progress on anything.
But then just when it seems like progress is actually imminent, via the above developments, nope, it all has to come crashing down in a blinding reminder of where Canada is actually headed (whether it voted for it or not). Carney takes the stage at European conference and clearly proclaims he is siding with Europe: “It is my strong personal view that as the international order will be rebuilt, but it will be rebuilt out of Europe, and so I am very appreciative of the symbolism of this invitation.”
Europe is a basket case. It won’t rebuild anything; it can hardly build anything. It is willing to die on a net-zero illusion, and so is Carney (who also reaffirmed in this speech his shared commitment with Europe to fighting climate change, meaning he doesn’t understand what got Europe into the hole it is in). Euro-love might sell in some parts of Canada, so this could be just a sad vote-pandering speech, and maybe Hodgson’s Calgary address was also.
Aligning with Europe because Trump is unpopular in Canada is some pretty bizarre long range strategic thinking. It panders to the worst of Canadian identity, whereby Canadians define themselves and explain their actions by saying “We’re not Americans.” That is vacuous and pompous, if for no other reason than that I know and like a lot of Americans and stereotyping isn’t helpful or the high ground. And it is just dumb. Kanye West, Warren Buffett, Bob Dylan, Meryl Streep and the Pope are all Americans…how are those sweeping generalizations coming?
And now here we are again. Headed for the world stage instead of worrying about the heartland. Heading straight out into a blizzard with no mittens. Or shoes. Shrugging our national collective shoulders again, year after year, until we hit the next breaking point.
Carney came to power by convincing boomers that he was the best man to cut a deal with Trump. In the past month or two he has declared the old relationship with the US to be “over” and is now in Europe telling them that our future is with them.
This all sucks. Talking about politics. The past decade was enough to test anyone’s sanity, and, incredible as it sounds, by late 2024 pretty much all of Canada agreed. So we all wanted change. It was as close to national unity as I’ve ever seen.
As noted initially, some things have changed. The high level talk with respect to energy is indeed welcome. But Carney’s Euro speech is making it look like the new pro-energy talk was forced on them by necessity, by the fact that the world is scrambling for hydrocarbons, and that the true desire all along was more Euro-bonding. Carney is EU climate policy incarnate, and he sits at the epicentre of why Canadian hydrocarbons are not now getting to global markets as the whole world wants. He lit the fire as much as anyone. And his comments from the European conference were noted far and wide, across North America and Europe. It has been duly noted that, officially, Canada is turning its back on its largest and most natural trading partner, and seeking to forge an alliance (of moral superiority – “the international order will be rebuilt…out of Europe”) with an economic basket case. A self-inflicted one.
Maybe this speculation is entirely wrong, and we come out of this all with diversified global trade and a renewed alignment with the US as well, which we desperately need. We can hope.
But the winds now blow as though we are integrating Canada into the EU, rather than mending the US relationship, and I can’t think of a stronger boost to Alberta separatist sentiment than that. Maybe Quebec has a lot in common with France, and good for them, but here in Alberta there is a lot more in common with Montana or Texas than Quebec. Seeking alignment with Europe will without question cause even more national bifurcation and disharmony.
Hey, anyone that’s been in the hydrocarbon industry for more than a decade is bound to wear at least some shield of cynicism. Even Ontario’s premier Doug Ford has chastised the federal government to show some respect to Alberta and Saskatchewan, singling them out, an act that has happened exactly never times before.
That’s what makes this all so exhausting. The positive messaging from Hodgson is the equivalent of the inspirational poster, exhorting us all to focus on positive energy. How great would that be…to have everyone on the same page and striving for similar goals. As Hodgson says, “this government and Canadians” are getting closer, by reaching alignment on the value of our natural resources.
That part is really great, to see some national alignment on something like that. But the rest simply can’t be ignored. When media pundits like Coyne and CBC panels, long accused of being Liberal toadies, are speaking out about the train wreck of much of the rest of the federal program…all the cheery sub-category messaging gets kind of overwhelmed. It is all so very ironic that things are finally looking up for the energy sector on the national scene, at the same time that unease is growing everywhere else.
At the peak of the energy wars, The End of Fossil Fuel Insanity challenged the narrative of imminent fossil fuel demise, facing into the storm. And now everyone is coming around to this realization as well. Read the energy story for those that don’t live in the energy world, but want to find out. And laugh. Available at Amazon.ca, Indigo.ca, or Amazon.com.
