Wrong Agenda

December 13, 2018 · 0 Comments

SHORT EDITORIAL

There was certainly a chill in the air when Canada’s first ministers met in Montréal on the weekend.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, in fact, threatened to walk out if his province’s concerns were not addressed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

This is called hardball politics.

Trudeau had to deal with a tougher crowd than last time, of course. While this was the fourth meeting that Trudeau has had with first ministers, it was the first communal sit-down since he lost Liberal allies following provincial elections in Québec, Ontario and New Brunswick.

So, he had a tougher row to hoe.

While Trudeau may have wanted to focus on his obsession of saving the planet through a “job-killing carbon tax” on Canadian taxpayers, the premiers and territorial leaders wanted to dial in on issues affecting their provinces economies – like the oil crisis, the downturn in the industrial sector and the burdensome costs of asylum-seekers.

Premier Ford told reporters that queue-jumping refugees have already cost Ontario taxpayers some $200 million with no end in sight and very little federal compensation.

And then there is the looming the shutdown of the General Motors plant in Oshawa.

This is no small matter. Many of our readers have intimate connections with General Motors, either having retired in our neck of the woods or still have friends or relatives working the assembly line.

These should be Trudeau’s concerns right now, not greenhouse gas emissions and taxation.

And how about the aluminum and steel tariffs that are hurting our automotive sector, a key player in the economy of our province?

But, according to reports coming out of Montréal, none of these issues run Trudeau’s agenda.

He wants to save the world by taxing the modest pollution created in Canada while the air in the Indian city of Delhi is equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes a day.

First things first. Alberta is literally dying on the vine because it cannot get its oil to tidewater.

Alberta premier Rachel Notley was particularly incensed by Trudeau’s agenda, and who can blame her?

Electorally speaking, she’s done like dinner.

Her re-election hopes are grimmer than grim.

She needs a miracle – or an immediate pipeline – and neither are about to happen.