{"id":12187,"date":"2020-08-23T06:56:39","date_gmt":"2020-08-23T10:56:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/?p=12187"},"modified":"2023-07-24T20:55:49","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T00:55:49","slug":"a-pivotal-week-for-the-trudeau-liberals-green-agenda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/?p=12187","title":{"rendered":"A Pivotal Week for the Trudeau Liberals\u2019 Green Agenda"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Niagara Independent, August 21, 2020\u00a0 \u2013 <\/em>Canada\u2019s drama-teacher-turned-Prime-Minister provided plenty of theatrics this week by first switching Finance Ministers and then bringing the curtain down on Parliament. With his performance, Justin Trudeau succeeded in consolidating power in his Prime Minister\u2019s Office and placing trusted globalists in the government\u2019s finance and economic portfolios.<\/p>\n

This has been a pivotal week for advancing the Trudeau Liberals\u2019 Green Agenda.<\/p>\n

The Liberal organ\u00a0Toronto Star<\/em>\u00a0highlighted a story recently in which Canadians learned PM Trudeau and his inner circle were strategizing on how to coincidentally shut down parliamentary debate on his government\u2019s scandals and implement a \u201cbigger and bolder\u201d post-pandemic government intervention and green economy agenda for the country. We were told Trudeau and his insiders did not want a Fall election and were looking for a way to simply assert their will on the country.<\/p>\n

Toronto Star<\/em>\u00a0reported an anonymous Liberal backroom stagehand explaining the theme: \u201c[It\u2019s an] opportunity for us to think big to think about child care, to think about how we can accelerate the transition to clean energy and how we can fight climate change, how we can help vulnerable people, how we can root out discrimination and level the playing field for working people and on all the progressive ideas that we\u2019ve talked about and made progress on but in a different context. So can we actually present a big vision? I think we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the Star\u2019s idyllic prelude, CBC reported their anonymous sources foreshadowing the first act of the week: \u201cTrudeau, Morneau clash over green plans, soaring deficit.\u201d The CBC script read: \u201cA deepening rift between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his finance minister about coronavirus spending is also fueled by disagreements over the scope and scale of proposed green initiatives\u2026 Trudeau, who campaigned on a platform to tackle climate change, believes the 2021 budget should have an ambitious environmental element to start weaning the heavily oil-dependent economy off fossil fuels\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Exit stage-left Morneau; enter wire-flying Mark Carney from his United Nations Special Envoy on Climate Action position; and\u2026<\/p>\n

PM Trudeau surprised his captive audience by heralding Minister-of-Everything Chrystia Freeland as Canada\u2019s new Finance Minister and then directed his embattled Governor General Julie Payette to shutter Parliament \u2013 promptly closing down the work of the committees reviewing the billion-dollar WE scandal, the PM\u2019s ethical breaches, and China-Canada relations.<\/p>\n

PM Trudeau took centre stage to deliver a soliloquy on his actions (in case the audience was confused by what they just witnessed): \u201cWe need to reset the approach of this government for a recovery to build back better. And those are big, important decisions and we need to present that to Parliament and to gain the confidence of Parliament to move forward on this ambitious plan. This is our chance to build a more resilient Canada, a Canada that is healthier and safer, greener and more competitive, a Canada that is more welcoming and more fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

(As an aside, note the Prime Minster used the phrase \u201cbuild back better.\u201d This is a reoccurring mantra that environmentalists are echoing around the globe to describe their green agenda to be supported by a new global order. \u201cBuild back better\u201d was also uttered by U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden this week in his battle cry for a new American economic plan.)<\/p>\n

On cue, Canada\u2019s freshly ensconced finance minister used her first media scrum in Ottawa to reemphasize the Liberals\u2019 plot. Finance Minister Freeland said matter-of-factly about restoring Canada\u2019s economy from the COVID-19 pandemic: \u201cTo [the] question about decarbonization as part of our economic plan going forward: Of course, it has to be part of it. I think all Canadians understand that the restart of our economy needs to be green.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, in the Ottawa troupe, there now is Trudeau, Freeland and Carney (with a cast of supporting actors McKenna, Guilbeault and Wilkinson) all aligned to \u201cbuild back better\u201d by shifting Canada\u2019s economy away from oil and gas and towards green energy, and introducing bigger, interventionist government to caretake national welfare, immigration, childcare and universal basic income programs. True to that\u00a0Toronto Star<\/em>\u00a0prelude, the Trudeau Liberals are using the pandemic to fundamentally change the way the Canadian economy operates. (It\u2019s a page ripped from Obama backroom advisor Rahm Emanuel\u2019s playbook: \u201cNever\u00a0let a\u00a0crisis\u00a0go to\u00a0waste.\u201d)<\/p>\n

The stage-managed events in the National Capital this week elicited scorn from a range of Canadian economists, financiers, energy experts \u2014 and from the editorial board of Canada\u2019s leading national paper. Here is a sampling of the critical reviews:<\/p>\n