The Harper Agenda: Oil or Nothing

"“If Ottawa giveth, then Ottawa can taketh away… This is one more reason why Westerners, but Albertans in particular, need to think hard about their future in this country. After sober reflection, Albertans should decide that it is time to seek a new relationship with Canada. …Canada appears content to become a second-tier socialistic country, boasting ever more loudly about its economy and social services to mask its second-rate status, led by a second-world strongman appropriately suited for the task …Having hit a wall, the next logical step is not to bang our heads against it. It is to take the bricks and begin building another home – a stronger and much more autonomous Alberta. It is time to look at Quebec and to learn. What Albertans should take from this example is to become “maitres chez nous”."
(Stephen Harper, National Post, December 8, 2000)

Although many have forgotten about these words, or dismiss them as something old that wouldn't appeal to Stephen Harper today, if you look at Harper's approach to Canada it appears this quote may, in fact, define his agenda.

If you look at what Stephen Harper has and hasn't done it becomes clear that the primary beneficiary of everything he does is Alberta and big oil.

He created an environmental program that effectively requires Alberta oil companies to do nothing.

He has provided tax cuts and subsidies that primarily benefit Alberta oil and that will more than cover any fines that Alberta oil companies may face for breaking environmental laws.

He has allowed 'fallow fields' legislation for Alberta - which means that oil companies in Alberta must harvest now and cannot allow oil they have found to sit unharvested. But he has denied 'fallow fields' legislation to Atlantic Canada which means that oil companies can wait to harvest oil they have found there. And make no mistake, his entire interest in 'Arctic Sovereignty' is about oil rights, not a love of the North or its people.

Even his support for continued military action in Afghanistan and for Bush's war in Iraq can be seen as a benefit to oil companies. Continued instability in the middle east drives up the price of oil and makes oil exploration outside of the Middle East more attractive.

Now, it's not surprising, I suppose that a PM from Alberta should be interested in promoting Alberta and oil companies but if you then look at what he has done elsewhere in Canada. For forestry and mill workers (big in a number of provinces but not really Alberta) he has done nothing to help as their industry declines. For fisheries workers he has done nothing. For manufacturing workers (primarily Ontario and Quebec) he has done nothing. For arts, culture and tourism (Ontario, Quebec and B.C.) he has deliberately done damage to the industries.

So, in essence Stephen Harper and the Conservatives are actively and quickly creating a Canada where oil (and other non-renewable resources) rule. Where Oil money, and specifically Alberta oil money is the only money.

Harper would like to publicly distance himself from his Alliance and Reform past. If you look at the legislation he, and the Alberta Conservatives, have put forward though it would appear that his motives haven't changed. Ignore what he says and election time promises and actually look at the Conservative record. The Conservatives are little more than the Bloc Alberta. They know that the vast majority of Canadians do not support their neo-con agenda but, it appears, they are hoping that they can cling to power long enough that Alberta will be the dominant province economically regardless of who is in power.