David Staples: Troubling blind spot keeps tripping up NDP in battle with Danielle Smith

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The Alberta NDP keeps walking into the same brick wall because it fails to recognize its troubling blind spot.

Maybe this will be fixed by fresh ideas during the leadership contest. Maybe some candidate will propose a better way. For now, though, the Alberta NDP remains largely wedded to Trudeau Liberal energy policy, which is made up of one part utopian fantasy, one part climate alarm, and one part control freak aggression, all of it ending up in economic chaos for Canada, a Russia/Norway/Middle East/USA stranglehold on new oil and gas exports, and no reduction in global emissions.

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The NDP is evidently blind to the consequences of its collusion and also to this out-of-touch policy’s unpopularity. The main concern of most Canadians is paying their grocery and housing bills, not Steven Guilbeault’s latest dark scheme to tax or ban this, that or the other essential thing that makes possible a good life in this cold, northern country.

In criticizing the NDP, I’m not saying the party is unique in having blind spots. All parties have debilitating blind spots, such as Canada’s Conservative movement a decade ago when it came to Indigenous participation in the economy and regarding the need for mitigating climate change. Conservatives have since addressed the two issues, becoming cheerleaders for the win-win of Indigenous jobs and wealth in our natural resources sector and embracing nuclear power and LNG exports as the best way to curb global emissions.

The Alberta NDP might consider such a rethink. Or it can go with the status quo, though that sees Premier Danielle Smith regularly pulverizing them over their blind spot. Smith did so again to outgoing NDP leader Rachel Notley on Wednesday at executive council.

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For two hours the council met, giving Notley an extended session to grill Smith over the provincial budget and expenses. Notley dug into Alberta’s new Ottawa office. She mentioned that when Smith led the Wildrose Party in 2012 she strongly opposed then Premier Alison Redford opening such an Ottawa office.

“Why has she changed her mind?” Notley asked. “What has she learned in the intervening 10 years that makes this a good investment for the people of Alberta?”

Did Notley not see what was coming next? Is she blind to the obvious answer, that in 2012 the ruling Harper Conservatives were warm to Alberta, and that no one imagined the nasty impact of nine years of Justin Trudeau, of the most grasping and oppositional federal government that Alberta has ever faced.

Smith attempted to explain: “As for what’s the point of the office, well, I guess the fact that that question is asked shows just how far apart our government is from the (NDP) opposition about what the point is,” she said. “The point is pretty serious, that the federal government continues to invade our jurisdiction. It doesn’t matter how many court cases they lose, how many times they get chastised by judges, they continue to violate our jurisdiction.”

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Smith listed recent issues justifying the need for an Ottawa office, including the Trudeau Libs invoking their clean electricity regulations forcing a net-zero electricity grid on Alberta by 2035, then mentioning the Federal Court ruling against Ottawa’s plan to classify plastics as toxic, the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling against the Trudeau Liberal’s plan for assessing major new industrial and resource projects, Ottawa’s plant to unilaterally impose methane and oil-and-gas emissions caps on Alberta, and Ottawa’s mandate to move away from fully gas-powered cars.

Smith also mentioned Ottawa’s new scheme for dental care, its pharmacare ambitions and the need to work with First Nations groups that also oppose Ottawa’s grabby nature.

“These would be all of the reasons why we believe we need to have an office in Ottawa,” Smith concluded.

A quick note on one of Smith’s points: the federal government’s requirement that all new vehicles sold by 2035 be electric could increase Canada’s power demand by as much as 15.3 per cent, a new study the Fraser Institute reports. This would require the equivalent of 10 new mega hydro dams or 13 large natural gas plants. “In such a short timeline, that simply isn’t realistic or feasible!” the report reads.

Do such concerns register with the Alberta NDP? They don’t seem to.

That could change. If Conservatives can change, why not NDPers?

A number of NDP leadership candidates are already promising to axe the NDP’s former pet policy of a consumer carbon tax.

One candidate might next proclaim it’s righteous and necessary to stand up against all of Trudeau’s daffy energy policies. If that candidate wins the race, the battle for Alberta is on.

But not until then.

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