Canadian Politics, Exciting or Ho-hum

Whispering in the Wind (WITW 38) July 30, 2014

Alberta Politics, Like Watching Paint Dry

The Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership race has not generated a lot of attention in the media nor has the race garnered any real interest with the coffee shop gang in Smoky Lake.  For many it’s like watching paint dry on a hot day and to add insult to injury, there is no cold beer in hand.

By all accounts Jim Prentice has been declared the front runner in Alberta’s PC leadership race opposite former deputy premier, Thomas Lukaszuk and former minister of transport, Ric McIver.  Actually Lukaszuk has tried to distinguish himself and there are a few sparks of interest in a few constituencies.  Jim Prentice appears to have a good portion of Alberta’s business community behind him, particularly the elite in Calgary’s oil and gas business.  Many in the resource sector quite rightly feel that Mr. Prentice is most able to deal with the big boys in Ottawa, has ministerial experience in environmental matters and is well respected within the Aboriginal community – three important assets if Alberta is to get its bitumen to critical markets.  Regarding social policy issues, all three candidates seem to be satisfied with the status-quo – although Mr. Prentice did insist that the Minister of Education (our own Jeff Johnson) work more cooperatively with stakeholders, specifically the teacher’s union. As to the candidates and the possibility of visiting the Smoky Lake area, I understand Mr. Lukaszuk will be in the rodeo parade and Jim Prentice will be here at the end of the month at the Senior Citizen’s Drop-In Centre.   As to the vote on who will be Alberta’s next premier, September 6 is the big day.  If there is not a clear cut winner then a second vote will take place on September 20 – remember you have to be an Alberta PC member to vote.  As for Danielle Smith, leader of the Alberta Wildrose Party, she is basking in the sun of success.  Polls indicate that if an election were held tomorrow, her party would receive about 40 percent of committed voters and that’s majority territory.     

Harper Politics, Like Watching a Catastrophe Unfold

Over the past year and a half Canadians have observed one scandal after another, all attributable to the political miscalculations of Steven Harper and his conservative government.  It seems that every month or so a scandal of sorts comes up that requires a defensive political strategy on the part of Steven Harper and his inner circle of handlers.  The list of political miscalculations is long and I have written about most of them but things have gotten out of hand when Mr. Harper’s economic policy mismanagement and related deceptions have run counter to what I have often referred to as NATION BUILDING.  The mismanagement of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) has created a class of companies that are now dependent on the TFWP for its workforce at the expense of Canada’s young people. 

The Ford Motor Company and the Ontario government are both claiming that the Canada–South Korea Free Trade pact signed last March will see a flooding of cars from overseas into Canada – in my view that’s not nation building, Canada needs to maintain a strong manufacturing base in Ontario. 

And the latest deception; the Canada-Europe Trade Agreement (CETA) appears to be in jeopardy?  The Germans appear to be concerned about a foreign-investor clause that would allow a corporate body to take legal action against a government if it is felt that the corporate body is being unfairly treated.  In this case I agree with the German position in that each and every nation-state has the right and obligation to its population to maintain a strong nation and not be subject to the whims and ways of the corporation body.  It is going to be interesting how Steven Harper works his way around this most fundamental issue – globalization versus nation-state building?