The Trudeau government has rarely been considered a friend to Alberta. In the weird world of politics, though, Prime Minister Trudeau provides a boon to provincial leaders like Premier Danielle Smith.
While Smith is playing great politics, will it lead to good policies?
She is probably correct in both the assumption that the government is in its dying days and that it could be potentially dangerous in terms of policies that may be against her sides’ interests because of that. In that case, though, is it wise policy for her to provoke Trudeau while he is on the ropes?
An emissions cap presents a risk to conventional energy producers, and Alberta’s premier is standing up for her province in opposing it. But with Trudeau in a politically vulnerable spot right now, a less confrontational approach to the issue could have been more effective for Smith to get him to relent on or soften the policy. That sort of approach wouldn’t have the impact of consolidating support from Smith’s party members, however.
It’s not just the upcoming leadership review motivating Smith. With it appearing likely that Trudeau will be out of office within a year, she may be thinking she needs to maximize her opportunity to use his government as a political enemy while she can. If Pierre Poilievre becomes the next prime minister, the Alberta government will have to change its approach to dealing with the federal government. Smith won’t have a clear antagonist to point at, and Poilievre is unlikely to attack Alberta’s energy sector. A great outcome for Alberta, but a mixed blessing for Smith who is only maintaining a narrow lead in popular support against Naheed Nenshi’s NDP.
Meanwhile, in Ottawa, the political games continue as Trudeau used his testimony at the foreign interference inquiry to try to paint Poilievre as a villain attempting to cover up the identities of compromised MPs within his party. It serves to attack Poilievre and distract from internal Liberal party woes. While Trudeau and Poilievre joust over which party may contain more unidentified parliamentarians who have been compromised by hostile foreign powers, it becomes forgotten that we shouldn’t be tolerating the existence of any compromised parliamentarians of any party stripe. The spirit and intent of the inquiry are being lost as leaders focus on scoring points against each other rather than prioritizing the security of the nation.
Canada needs a strong, stable federal government. A minority government has been in place for too long and has created such an adversarial, partisan atmosphere that it has become nearly impossible for good policies to be crafted and debated. No matter who may be leading the nation in a year, Canada will be better off with that person leading a majority government. Policies can then be prioritized over politics, at least for a little while.
Until then, though, Canadians are forced to watch in frustration as political leaders at all levels of government neglect pressing issues within the economy, public safety, and immigration in favour of trying to tear each other down.
