NDP Leader's stays tactful on oilsands visit.
by Gillian Steward
NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair dropped into Alberta last week for his first visit to the oilsands. He came, he saw and almost immediately after headed for Saskatchewan. His appearance didn't win him much support. But it didn't do him any harm either.
That's because Mulcair was careful not to fan the flames of western anger — as he did earlier when he said that rapid development of the oilsands was a job-killer for central Canada's manufacturing sector and something needed to be done about it.
While in Alberta Mulcair didn't say much about the effect of oilsands development on the manufacturing sector. Instead, he called for stronger environmental regulations and enforcement of the regulations now in place in order to level the economic playing field. That was a smart move that left editorial writers and other commentators holding their fire.
An editorial in the Calgary Herald applauded him for "at least attempting to know of what he speaks," although the newspaper remained unconvinced that he had actually changed his mind about favouring one region over another when it comes to economic policy.
The Calgary Sun was not so sanguine. "It's evident Mulcair mostly wanted to milk the national media attention to boost his own political fortunes. If anything, he turned up the volume on his rhetoric (about the environment)."
Not surprisingly, Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason was quick to lend support for Mulcair's stand on environmental and climate change issues. But he wasn't so enthusiastic about the federal NDP leader's remarks about Dutch disease and made it clear that "limiting Alberta's opportunities" was not a solution.
No question this is a touchy issue for western NDPers. Like Mason, many agree that oilsands developers are getting a free ride because they are not paying for the real costs of environmental damage and greenhouse gas emissions. But they don't want taxes or environmental levies that would transfer wealth out of the western provinces (mostly Alberta and Saskatchewan) to the rest of the country.
Alvin Finkel, an Edmonton historian and longtime NDP supporter, wonders how Mulcair is going to solve this dilemma.
When oilsands fever raises the dollar, BC’s manufacturing and export sector is just as vulnerable as Ontario’s.
"If he wants to maintain at least some western support, he has to promise that the monies pulled directly by the state from oilsands will be invested within the region for alternative energy start-ups, upgrading of oilsands oil, etc. Otherwise he does look like he's simply trying to directly transfer wealth from Alberta and Saskatchewan to central and eastern Canada… " Finkel said in an email.
Finkel wrote the definitive book on the Social Credit phenomenon in Alberta and has studied the politics and economics of the West for decades. He believes that if Mulcair pushes policies that take billions of dollars out of the western provinces "he'll be courting the fury" of Alberta Premier Alison Redford and Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall and that could pull both BC and Manitoba to the cause.
But if Mulcair treads more carefully and elaborates on his plans to deal with the real costs of environmental damage caused by oilsands development, he might have more success. That might slow down development, says Finkel, but it won't likely affect employment, and since there is a labour shortage anyway a slowdown could be a good thing.
Finkel also points out that not all the western provinces profit from petroleum resources to the extent that Alberta and Saskatchewan do. When oilsands fever raises the dollar, BC's manufacturing and export sector is just as vulnerable as Ontario's.
"They (BC and Manitoba) don't like the oil-rich provinces any better than Canadians further east and would only fall into a "united west" way of thinking if a federal leader seems to be zeroing in unfairly on the oil provinces," he adds.
Finkel says Mulcair is no radical but he's he's being painted as an old-style socialist who wants to nationalize everything.
"So the onus is on him to demonstrate that that's crap and what he really intends to do is what he says: enforce existing rules. But he has to be very clear about what those rules are and in what way they are not being enforced."
Finkel supported Mulcair for the NDP leadership because he believed he was the only candidate who could beat Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
It's doubtful that the NDP would ever see a groundswell of support in Alberta. But the NDP has lots of loyal troops in the other western provinces. Mulcair just has to figure out how to work with them rather than against them.
About Gillian Steward
Gillian Steward is a Calgary writer and journalist, and former managing editor of the Calgary Herald.
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