{"id":15195,"date":"2023-01-15T12:52:14","date_gmt":"2023-01-15T17:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/?p=15195"},"modified":"2023-07-24T20:25:44","modified_gmt":"2023-07-25T00:25:44","slug":"trudeau-plays-politics-in-advance-of-alberta-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/?p=15195","title":{"rendered":"Trudeau plays politics in advance of Alberta election"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Niagara Independent, January 13, 2023 \u2013 <\/em>It is becoming increasingly evident that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the federal Liberals have initiated a political powerplay to impact Alberta\u2019s spring election. The PM and his ministers started 2023 making comments that are seemingly designed to agitate western Canadians, particularly Albertans.<\/p>\n

From confiscating hunting rifles to profiling an employment program that transitions workers away from the oil and gas industry, to suggesting the provincial government provide more in subsidies for new green programs, the federal Liberals are now advancing issues and using inflammatory language to poke and prod the Albertan government of Premier Danielle Smith.<\/p>\n

Alberta and Premier Smith are in PM Trudeau\u2019s crosshairs when it comes to the political gamesmanship being played out with the government\u2019s gun control legislation. In 2022, the federal government introduced legislation that establishes a buyback program requiring firearms owners to sell their assault-style weapons. Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino proposed that the RCMP and provincial police forces take the lead role in retrieving more than 1,500 models of firearms from Canadians.<\/p>\n

However, the federal government\u2019s buyback plan was immediately rejected by four provinces (Alberta included) and a territory \u2013 and First Nations \u2013 who are now exploring ways to legally challenge the federal gun program.<\/p>\n

Then in December the federal Liberals pulled a fast one in parliament and introduced last-minute legislative amendments that expand the scope of the new federal law to prohibit sport shooting weapons and hunting rifles. Even the NDP MPs were caught off guard with the move. MP Charlie Angus admitted, \u201cThe amendment came out of nowhere. This was a handgun bill. We suddenly saw this other legislation that has a lot of people who are legitimate gun owners worried. I think they overreached.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just prior to Christmas, the Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro responded with an announcement that, as of January 1, 2023, the province\u2019s Crown prosecution service would assume responsibility for firearm prosecutions. Shandro expressed Albertans\u2019 frustrations in the federal legislation that attacks hunters, farmers and sport shooters. He further called out the federal Liberals for purposefully targeting western Canadians, \u201cThis is about shoring up their own political support.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Globe and Mail<\/i> lead editorial concurs that it is sheer politics: \u201cThe Liberals jammed a wedge into their handgun bill. They need to pull it out.\u201d The paper wrote: \u201cThis confusion is all too typical of the divisive political debate over guns in Canada\u2026 the Liberals suddenly drove a wedge into their bill. They need to clear the air and get this important legislation back on track.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last shots fired in this federal-provincial standoff were federal minister Mendicino\u2019s statements to Canadian Press<\/i> about the upcoming months. Last week the minister hinted that Ottawa was now looking at \u201cthird parties\u201d to implement its buyback program in provinces who are not cooperating. Mendicino is quoted: \u201cWe\u2019re working with industry leaders, we\u2019re working with potential third parties. So we are exploring all of these options.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the same news cycle that had Mendicino conjuring up scenes of hired guns confiscating Canadians\u2019 guns, Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson was announcing the government\u2019s intention to introduce new legislation to retrain oil and gas workers for new green energy employment. Wilkinson appeared to be smirking when he revealed the federal green jobs initiative is called the \u201cJust Transition\u201d program.<\/p>\n

With few specifics, the minister waxed on about the great opportunities there are in the future green economy. \u201cI said it many times publicly that I do not believe that the challenge we are going to face is that there are workers who are displaced that will not find other good-paying jobs. I am actually quite worried that there are so many opportunities \u2026 we will not have enough workers to fill the jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilkinson indicated that he is working on the \u201cJust Transition\u201d legislation with Labour Minister Seamus O\u2019Regan. He is also working closely with NDP MP Charlie Angus, as the initiative is a core part of the confidence-and-supply agreement between the Liberals and NDP.<\/p>\n

Premier Smith was quick to retort that Albertans are \u201cnot interested\u201d in having a Liberal-NDP program that is enabling the province\u2019s largest industry to be \u201cphased out of existence.\u201d Smith asserted, \u201cThe prime minister wants to phase out the workforce for the largest industry in Alberta and hasn\u2019t bothered with getting Alberta\u2019s input. We have had no consultation, no discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Premier added, \u201cOil and gas \u2014 and its thousands of by-products \u2014 will be a part of the global economy for decades, and Albertans own one of the largest reserves of it on the planet. Albertans, not Ottawa, will manage our resource sector how Albertans see fit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alberta Environment Minister Sonya Savage also took issue with the federal government\u2019s \u201cjust transition\u201d program. Savage stated, \u201cAlberta is proud to be one of the most responsible producers of oil and gas globally. We have been a world-leader for decades. We expect the federal government to stand up for our world-leading oil and gas employees, instead of trying to eliminate their jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The political reverberations about Wilkinson\u2019s announcement were still being felt when last Friday PM Trudeau entertained Reuters News<\/i> with an interview in which he deliberately poked at Alberta\u2019s carbon tax policies. Trudeau stated, \u201cThere is a political class in Alberta that has decided that anything to do with climate change is going to be bad for them or for Alberta\u2026 We\u2019ve seen for a while Alberta hesitating around investing in anything related to climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his first interview granted in 2023, Trudeau suggested the province should use its surplus funds to provide greater tax credit subsidies for investing in green energy projects. \u201cI think there\u2019s a role for provinces with surpluses, with the capacity to be investing in their future and their workers future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The PM\u2019s slight elicited a strong rebuke by Premier Smith who stated Alberta is tired of Ottawa\u2019s divisive politics. \u201cWe have a prime minister who plays favourites and treats different parts of the country in a different way. This is the thing that I think Albertans are tired of \u2014\u00a0is that we continue to be the punching bag of the federal government and this Liberal prime minister, in particular, for political reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

This past weekend, Rob Breakenridge of the Calgary Herald<\/i> wrote an opinion column lamenting that \u201cOttawa\u2019s bungling or politicking\u201d is destroying any cooperation between the federal and provincial governments. At question is the intent of the federal Liberals with their flurry of January media interviews that \u201cvery much paints a picture of an antagonistic federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breakenridge muses, \u201cIt seems rather odd that the Trudeau Liberals would plant such a flag just over four months away from an Alberta election, and this could all just be a by-product of incompetence or political tone-deafness. Or it could be a deliberate strategy \u2014 one that seeks to use Alberta as a political wedge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, the PM\u2019s and federal Liberals\u2019 brazen use of wedge politics and their orchestration of hot-button issues are clearly in play. And these political games are sure to continue for months, until Albertans vote.<\/p>\n

Chris George<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is an Ottawa-based government affairs advisor and wordsmith, president of\u00a0CG&A COMMUNICATIONS<\/a>. Contact:\u00a0ChrisG.George@gmail.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

LINK: https:\/\/niagaraindependent.ca\/trudeau-plays-politics-in-advance-of-alberta-election\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Niagara Independent, January 13, 2023 \u2013 It is becoming increasingly evident that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the federal Liberals have initiated a political powerplay to impact Alberta\u2019s spring election. The PM and his ministers started 2023 making comments that are seemingly designed to agitate western Canadians, particularly Albertans. From confiscating hunting rifles to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[76],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15195"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15195"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15198,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15195\/revisions\/15198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bygeorgejournal.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}