OTTAWA —
Midway through the 2008 federal election campaign, a mischievous reporter decided he’d had enough of boring news conferences and asked Conservative Leader Stephen Harper if he loved Canada.
It was more about getting a rise out of the notoriously unflappable Harper and, if memory serves, the leader’s glare of an answer didn’t exactly prove he had a pulse.
But on two fronts – one symbolic, one substantive – it wouldn’t be quite so outlandish to ask Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that same question today.
First the symbolism: The prime minister’s half-masted flag-flap has gone from empathetic gesture reflecting widespread sympathy for young Indigenous victims who didn’t survive residential school horrors to inducing fed-up antagonism in some quarters and triggering a polarized political debate.
The rest of the democratic world must be slack-jawed to see a Canada where the raging debate of the political moment is whether to briefly raise the nation’s flag after six months at half-mast only to lower it again for Remembrance Day. All this while we wait for permanent flag-raising approval from Indigenous leaders who don’t seem to have a clear position on how and when to end this unprecedented display of Canadian self-shaming.
But, now that I’ve got that vent out of my system, this isn’t the only red flag signal of Trudeau dividing Canada against itself.
His exchange of velvet gloves for brass knuckles by imposing a hard cap on Alberta oil emissions makes one wonder if the most accurate headline would be “Canada Declares War Against Canada.”
Nobody can claim with a straight face that the oilsands are anything but blight on Canada’s environmental record and in need of a continued clean-up.
But Trudeau’s single-minded takedown of oilsands production is like banning Christmas tree sales so he can start delivering on his three-year-old pledge to expand our forests by two billion trees, a promise that has yet to take root.
Canada’s oil emissions problem isn’t domestic production as much as internal combustion.
If we could reduce emissions to zero by shutting down the oilsands, 80 per cent of Canada’s emissions would still be belched out by burning imported oil in cars and trucks. The only tangible result would be the loss of almost half a million direct or indirect Canadian jobs and about $10 billion in government revenue.
It’s tempted to suggest Trudeau also impose a production cap on cars and trucks being built in Ontario, but that would produce an equally-futile net-zero change in our behaviour beyond driving only imported cars.
So we’re left with a Trudeau attack on domestic oil that is counterbalanced by an equal and opposite benefit for foreign oil exporters like Saudi Arabia.
Again, there’s no disputing that the oilsands need political arm-twisting to throttle down its smokestacks.
But no lesser authority than the federal government’s own website gives the oilsands a nod for getting emissions per barrel down almost a third from its peak.
That’s where Trudeau’s economic re-engineering thrust should be focussed, be it actively supporting small modular nuclear reactors to power the oilsands or ramping up the massive potential of hydrogen, which got a multi-billion-dollar Edmonton investment from Air Products Canada last summer.
Trudeau surely knows it’s pointless in the grand global scheme of things to block the tailpipe of a Canadian economic engine like the oilsands, which generates 0.1 of global emissions, when China belches out more greenhouse gases than the rest of the developed world combined and doesn’t even show up for the COP 26 conference.
But he did it anyway, a Jean Chretien repeat of Kyoto in 1997 when the former prime minister caught provinces by surprise with a hard pledge to cut emissions which, his top adviser later admitted to knowing, was just signing-symbolism and not an achievable goal.
To see Trudeau, now “dean” of the G7, delivering another hot-air promise for just-watch-me attention from other world leaders has all the elements of Chretien history repeating itself.
For keeping our proud flag half-masted long after an important point has been made and for vowing to smother Alberta oil production which will be needed for decades to come, the question is now worth asking: Does Justin Trudeau love all of Canada?
EDMONTON – RCMP say a second suspect has been arrested in the killing of an Alberta county worker.
Mounties say 28-year-old Elijah Strawberry was taken into custody Friday at a house on O’Chiese First Nation.
Colin Hough, a worker with Rocky View County, was shot and killed while on the job on a rural road east of Calgary on Aug. 6.
Another man who worked for Fortis Alberta was shot and wounded, and RCMP said the suspects fled in a Rocky View County work truck.
Police later arrested Arthur Wayne Penner, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for Strawberry’s arrest.
RCMP also said there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Strawberry, describing him as armed and dangerous.
Chief Supt. Roberta McKale, told a news conference in Edmonton that officers had received tips and information over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know of many members that when were stopped, fuelling up our vehicles, we weren’t keeping an eye out, looking for him,” she said.
But officers had been investigating other cases when they found Strawberry.
“Our investigators were in O’Chiese First Nation at a residence on another matter and the major crimes unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in the residence,” McKale said.
While an investigation is still underway, RCMP say they’re confident both suspects in the case are in police custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
RICHMOND, B.C. – The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the 26-year-old son of a man found dead on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with his murder.
Police say 58-year-old Henry Doyle was found badly injured on a forest service road in Egmont last September and died of his injuries.
The homicide team took over when the BC Coroners Service said the man’s death was suspicious.
It says in a statement that the BC Prosecution Service has approved one count of first-degree murder against the man’s son, Jackson Doyle.
Police say the accused will remain in custody until at least his next court appearance.
The homicide team says investigators remained committed to solving the case with the help of the community of Egmont, the RCMP on the Sunshine Coast and in Richmond, and the Vancouver Police Department.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, have broken off without an agreement following 15 hours of talks.
Joe McCann, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they stayed at the bargaining table with help from a mediator until 2 a.m. Friday and made “some progress.”
However, he says the union negotiators didn’t get an offer that they could recommend to the membership.
McCann says that in some ways they are close to an agreement, but in other areas they are “miles apart.”
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people who can’t navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last week, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
McCann asks HandyDART users to be “patient,” since they are trying to get not only a fair contract for workers but also a better service for customers.
He says it’s unclear when the talks will resume, but he hopes next week at the latest.
The employer, Transdev, didn’t reply to an interview request before publication.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
