Darshan Maharaja: An election is not the time to discuss major issues, said Kim Campbell in 1993

The election campaign is in full swing now. I am sure that you are being bombarded with the daily minutiae of the campaign. As I said earlier, in this Newsletter, I will keep focused on important issues that are, sadly, relegated to the background in the hubbub of the campaign.

This reminds me of the words of former Prime Minister Kim Campbell during the 1993 election: “An election is not the time to discuss major issues” (or words to that effect). She took – and continues to take – a lot of flak for this remark, but unfortunately, she was right on target; her only fault was that she spoke the unmentionable.

With that preface, let us take a look at the issue of energy today. Liberal leader Mark Carney, having earlier made contradictory statements on the topic of oil and gas pipelines, has now settled for using the expression ‘energy corridor’. He persists with this usage even when the reporter’s question is squarely focused on the pipelines. This is, to use a colloquial expression, ‘suspicious as hell’. We hope that our suspicions will not turn out to be true. In the meantime, here are some recent stories on energy that deserve our full attention:

1.      Under-investment in the oil & gas sector: We are all familiar with the sad state of affairs in Canada in this regard over the past decade, viz., since Justin Trudeau became Prime Minister. His cabinet and inner circle were filled with enviro-zealots who viewed the sector as an unmitigable evil. Our mainstream media being what it is, the narrative created by this cabal was not resisted with enough force, so a large section (in fact, a critical mass) of Canadian society embraces this narrative unquestioningly.

Dissenting voices are left in isolated corners where they essentially preach to the converted. Still, it was gratifying to see an article in The Logic recapping the entire situation in one place. To wit: “Investors are fleeing the country’s oil and gas industry, chased off by onerous regulations and layers of environmental restrictions… As a result, Canadian firms are shovelling ever more capital into dividend payments and share buybacks to appease those investors who remain—a destructive cycle that has eroded investment in more productive pursuits that would increase these companies’ output.”

The neglect of this vital sector is put in perspective when we see (as mentioned in the article) that it was “expected to contribute a whopping $176 billion to Canadian GDP in 2025” (before the US tariff threat). The sooner we rectify our folly of the past 10 years, the better it will be for our future.

 

2.      Regulatory hurdles: Speaking of regulatory hurdles, these seem not to be limited to the oil & gas sector. Even if one buys Mr. Carney’s term ‘energy corridor’, as John Ivison pointed out in his article in the National Post, “Carney’s rosy energy promises meet the Liberals’ dismal record”. What is this record?

To give you just one example, according to energy reporter Heather Exner-Pirot, “Rook I uranium mine. Prov approval, Indigenous consent, financing, energy security, shovel ready: 6 years into federal process they’re scheduling hearings for Feb 2026”. As we all know (but what the crazed crusaders for green energy ignore studiously), nuclear energy is free of CO2 emissions.

It should be a no-brainer to fast-track any project connected with nuclear energy. But in the (perhaps intentionally) sclerotic world of an ideologically driven government, even the hearing for an approved (at multiple levels) projects take 7 years just to start. This does not augur well for meeting ANY targets – whether relating to CO2 emissions, the ‘energy corridor’, or anything else.

 

3.      The opportunity cost of ideology: In an announcement in the BOE Report, TC Energy Corporation said that it would be holding an event titled ‘Canada’s Will to Win – Seizing a Generational Opportunity” at the Canadian Club Toronto. These words jumped out at me from the announcement: “The country has an opportunity right now to become a liquefied natural gas (LNG) superpower with a focus on Asian markets, if ambitions are bold instead of middling.”

I believe this statement put the finger on what ails CANADA AS A WHOLE: lack of ambition, in preference to ‘middling’ goals. This switch is, I believe, birthed by ideological obsession: while we know that helping Asian countries (and others) to switch from coal to natural gas as fuel would cut their CO2 emissions from power generation BY HALF, the problem in Canada is that natural gas, being a fossil fuel, is viewed as an ‘unmitigable evil’, and one does not associate with evil – at least, not willingly.

In a classic case of ‘missing the trees for the forest’, the dominant belief in Canada – including in the corridors of power – is that use of natural gas is to be shunned regardless of circumstances. So, we miss out on the potential to cut global emissions (not to mention the economic boost to Canada). The continuing emissions from coal-based power plants worldwide AND Canada’s economic loss are, then, the opportunity cost of Canada sticking to ideology instead of taking a pragmatic approach.

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