Carney must avoid Trudeau’s wedge politics
Posted April 17, 2025
“The Minister’s remarks were completely inappropriate. When we were elected it was to be the government of every part of the country regardless of how they voted. We will be appointing a new Minster in the coming week.”
That is what Justin Trudeau should have said in response to remarks by Newfoundland and Labrador Gudie Hutchings on the topic of carbon tax relief for home heating fuels.
Under heavy pressure from its Atlantic members of Parliament, the Liberals had caved in by taking the carbon tax off home heating oil. But they declined to do the same thing for natural gas used for home heating, which is most common in the Prairies and emits less carbon emissions.
When asked to explain the difference, Hutchings said: “Perhaps they need to elect more Liberals in the Prairies.” It is no coincidence that the 2021 election yielded 24 out of 32 seats in Atlantic Canada to the Liberals, but only 11 out of 54 seats in the Prairies.
But of course it would have been impossible for Trudeau to reprimand Hutchings, because the Liberal strategy for decades has been to focus on Atlantic Canada and the big urban areas in Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia. Political choices as government were guided by that lens.
The worst ever example of this belonged to Pierre Trudeau during the oil crisis, when he decided to implement “Made In Canada Oil Prices.” This meant subsidizing drivers in the rest of Canada at the expense of western provinces, especially Alberta.
That wedge mentality has continued under Justin Trudeau. The Energy East proposal to send oil eastward, opposed by Quebec, was subverted by creating a never-ending approval process.
The Trans Mountain pipeline extension to bring Alberta oil to tidewater was delayed and then mismanaged by the government. The Northern Gateway project with the same goal was approved by the Conservative government in 2014 but cancelled by Trudeau in 2016.
It is no wonder that Alberta and Saskatchewan have felt disaffected, and voices for leaving Canada have been growing.
Pierre Poilievre has announced a “National Energy Corridor, a pre-approved transport corridor for pipelines, transmission lines, railways and other critical infrastructure to rapidly build the projects our country needs and move Canadian resources from coast to coast, bypassing the U.S. and making us less reliant on the American market.”
With the election rapidly approaching, polls show the Liberals having a lock to get the most seats, and highly likely to receive a majority.
Carney has also announced a corridor with similar commitments to rapid approval processes, but the details are different. Most of it is about creation and transmission of clean energy, working with provinces and territories to build out an East-West electricity grid,
He endorses attracting, expanding and de-risking investment in critical mineral exploration and extraction, with additional investments and expansion of existing tax credits. He promises to connect critical mineral projects to supply chains via a new First and Last Mile Fund.
This will be of interest to mining companies. The main beneficiaries will be Ontario and Quebec.
He is more tepid on the topic of pipelines.
When running to replace Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader, Carney told an audience in Kelowna that he would use federal emergency powers to push major energy projects through. Days later, he told Quebec reporters, in French, that he would not impose any such projects on that province if it didn’t want them.
He didn’t say, “We’re going to build pipelines east and west to get our oil and gas to new markets.” When asked about energy projects and pipelines, he said (in French), “We have to choose a few projects, a few big projects, not necessarily pipelines, but maybe pipelines. We’ll see.”
That is not good enough. Car owners in eastern Canada are going to drive the same number of miles if the oil comes from Alberta instead of Saudi Arabia or Texas. Pipelines may not need subsidies from the government. They just need permission.
A good start would be to provide the amount that Ontario’s refineries can handle, about 400,000 barrels a day. They would need upgrading to manage the heavier oil, a costly and complex process which should be among the projects that a Carney government would support.
Carney grew up in Alberta and should have a deep understanding of the justified resentment from how it has been treated. Quebec’s barely rejected 1995 independence referendum was followed by numerous accommodations by the federal government.
It’s time for the Liberals to show Alberta and Saskatchewan some love.
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