Danielle Smith's very good day...
Alberta's Premier got a solid win on Thursday, Guilbeault is gone and a class action lawsuit.
Well, it was definitely a better deal than I expected and it got Steven Guilbeault to resign from cabinet. Maybe others will follow in his footsteps.
I wrote yesterday about my concerns about the deal having so many caveats as to make it meaningless. It could also have turned out to be a vague deal that offered nothing but a notional nod to working together in the future.
As I describe in the Toronto Sun, this deal is meaty and it is good.
Don’t take my word for it though, don’t take Mark Carney’s word for it, listen to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. She was absolutely beaming as she spoke at a news conference after the signing ceremony with Prime Minister Carney.
Carney spoke a while later at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce where he was warmly received - not something Liberal leaders are used to in Calgary.
This agreement isn’t perfect. It doesn’t solve everything. It is good though and you can read the text for yourself here.
Conservatives don’t know where to turn on this…
Pierre Poilievre was asking the Liberals when the pipeline would be built, a question they won’t answer because they can’t. It’s a valid line of questioning, but it is hard for them to go hard on this while the Premier of Alberta is praising the deal.
Here’s his exchange with Liberal ministers in the House today, not that Julie Dabrusin, the Environment Minister was defending the deal, unlike Guilbeault.
I understand the Conservatives who are calling me and saying Carney shouldn’t be getting credit for doing away with bad Liberal laws or policies. They say to me that he’s being rewarded for years of bad Liberal behaviour.
Perhaps, and I’ve made the point we shouldn’t need these types of agreements, but this is still a good deal for Alberta, the best they’ve seen in a long time and Premier Smith is happy, I will be.
Let’s see how it is implemented.
Steven Guilbeault chose to resign from cabinet…
Even with all the concessions that Mark Carney was able to get from Danielle Smith, the higher industrial carbon tax, the carbon capture and storage, it wasn’t enough for Steven Guilbeault. He announced that he was quitting cabinet, but not his seat or the Liberal Party, due to the signing of this deal.
Guilbeault is clearly the leader of the Mud Hut Brigade in Parliament, that group of people who believe that Canada leave its natural resources in the ground.
This isn’t shocking to anyone who knows the man or has followed his career.
I’ve told the story many times of meeting Guilbeault for the first time when he was still a front line activist. This was probably around 2001 and I was sent to cover activists who were protesting at an Esso station in downtown Montreal.
There was Guilbeault, a grown man, with one of those U shaped bicycle locks around his neck attaching him to the gas pump so that it couldn’t be used.
He famously was arrested for climbing the CN Tower and once terrified Ralph Klein’s wife by climbing on the roof of their house while Ralph was away.
Guilbeault is one of the MPs that I’ve been hearing will be leaving alongside Bill Blair, Jonathan Wilkinson, Chrystia Freeland and quite likely Melanie Joly. The House of Commons will be a better place without him.
You can read his statement here.
A class action lawsuit over the Cowichan Tribes court decision…
There is still an appeal ongoing in the Cowichan Tribes land dispute. A lower court recently granted title to the Cowichan over a section of land in Richmond, British Columbia which has clearly made homeowners nervous.
Some are saying they can’t renew mortgages, others fear they will lose their land. So one man decided he wasn’t waiting for the appeal, he’s filing a class action suit.
J.R. Rampee Grewal said he is concerned that a recent B.C. Supreme Court ruling that granted the Cowichan Tribes Aboriginal title to lands in Richmond will have ramifications for private land holders throughout B.C. That ruling is being appealed by B.C., Canada, the City of Richmond, and the Musqueam and Tsawwassen First Nations.
Mr Lilley you are seriously putting the best shine on this Carney charade.
Guilbeault got his pension. Carney considers Guilbeault disloyal. Salut.
Bitumen pipelines are a difficult proposition especially as oil prices drop.
We do need pipelines. Gas west east is really important.
Enbridge packed it in over a year ago on pipelines, and in fact any Canadian expansion. Reduced work force and concentrating on projects outside Canada. A Canadian company.
Then there is the Potash move last week. Saskatchewan-based potash giant Nutrien is planning to build a massive new export terminal in Washington State instead of B.C
So the Carney mini Trump display of the MOU is pure theatre. A charade.
Smith has a convention coming up. She is good.
The only way any pipeline happens is if a conservative government is elected with a majority.
Brian your Vassy Kapelos radio panelists today flat out rejected any chance of this pipeline happening. Liberal pundits publicly mocking it and oil ( dinosaur bones ) just as Carney displays his trumped up MOU.
Annoying really. Because Carney has net zero intention of a pipeline happening. And the liberal sycophants laugh at Canadians.
Sorry Brian, this snake oil salesman Carney will never build a pipeline, and this dog and pony show "good cop bad cop" schtick is just for opticks. Guilbeault was NOT the energy minister so he had NOTHING to do with this joke of a presser. This way Guilbeault can get a cushy ambassadorship over in Europe and follow in the footsteps of all the other JT Mp's that he's given these swanky jobs to that Canadians will be on the hook for AGAIN. Crooked Carney is the devil in disguise and is taking us all for fools. He's going to get his brethren in the NDP, Environmentalist and First Nation groups to now become the "bad cops" so they can oppose the pipelines and he can throw his hands up and say to us in Alberta "I tried, too bad soo sad". Carney only signed an MOU so there really is no "agreement" to get shovels in the ground. We have all been zoomed once again. Smart move on Carney's (actually Butts and Telford) part to throw Guilbeault under the proverbial bus although he's going to come out of this smelling like a rose.