Following Sunday’s announcement that Teck Resources was abandoning its Frontier mine, a friend pointed me to a tweet from the son of the late Peter Lougheed, which included a video of a speech the former Alberta premier gave 13 years ago.
Lougheed was premier from 1971 to 1985. He kickstarted the Progressive Conservatives’ status as the province’s natural governing party, their time in power lasting until 2015. He had a front-row seat to Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Program. His voice carried immense weight—which is what makes this 2007 speech to the Canadian Bar Association so riveting, and eerie, to watch.
Speaking to an audience in Calgary, Lougheed kicked off the 20-minute speech warning of a looming war between Alberta and the federal government over pollution caused by oilsands development.
“I foresee a growing prospect of a Canadian federal jurisdictional storm over conflicting legislation and environmental matters, causing significant stress … to national unity,” Lougheed began, adding that the clash would be “10 times greater” than federal-provincial conflicts of the past.
“This momentum for environmental change is so strong … that it places persons who try to argue the economic side … [are] perceived to be suspiciously self-serving.”
He told the audience, “The government of Alberta, with its accelerated expansion of oilsands operations, in my judgment, will be seen as the major villain in all of this in the eyes of the public across Canada.”
Here’s how The Globe and Mail reported on the speech the next day:
Mr. Lougheed predicted that the dispute will very likely go before the Supreme Court as a constitutional reference, forcing the Court to decide whether the British North America Act gives the province the right to develop its energy resources as it sees fits.
“My surmise is that we’re into this constitutional legal conflict soon,” he said. “And my surmise is that – and this is strong stuff – national unity will be threatened if the court upholds federal environmental legislation and it causes major damage to the Alberta oil sands and our economy.”
Lougheed concluded by saying he remained optimistic about the country: “There’s lots of scope for middle ground there…. My hope is that, even with a minority federal government, a political compromise could be reached.”
At the time, Stephen Harper was well into his first minority Parliament.
Lougheed died just over five years after delivering this speech. Listening to him left me longing for courageous political leadership that could bridge the growing divisions in the country.
For example, in that 2007 speech, Lougheed also argued in support of cooperative federalism, where all three levels of government would work collectively to solve common problems. “I think that … whoever is the prime minister has an obligation each year to have a full-scale open first ministers’ conference. And I’m just amazed that in the past number of years that hasn’t happened…. I think it’s been unfortunate that that has been allowed to lapse.”
This week, the Prime Minister’s Office announced that Justin Trudeau will host the next first ministers’ meeting in Ottawa on March 13. To the best of my knowledge, it won’t be televised. But it would be great if it were, so we could all see whether Canada’s leaders can rise to the challenge.
It’s so much easier to rally a base by casting blame than to frame the difficult choices that the country faces. Re-election is a wonderful drug. But as I’ve written before, we need leaders who can offer solutions to bridge a growing divide.
The future Lougheed predicted is now upon us. Don’t let anyone tell you that they didn’t see it coming.
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