Remember, here in Alberta, if the oilpatch ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.
Still, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s theatrical extended temper tantrum in the Legislature Building’s media room yesterday in response to the federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s release of draft rules to cap oil and gas emissions 35 per cent below the level of 2019 was a remarkable performance by any measure.
It’s hard for anyone to keep up with what’s changing these days with United Conservative Party (UCP) chaos muppets in charge of Alberta, but the transformation of Smith from ecstatic triumph after her party’s leadership review vote Saturday night to Monday’s unhinged fury was positively startling.
If it was a performance, it deserves an acting award. If it wasn’t, it may require an intervention.
At times profane – I’m pissed. I’m absolutely angry! she barked at one reporter – and unrelentingly hyperbolic, Smith looked as if she were ready to blow a gasket when she accused Guilbeault of pursuing “a deranged vendetta against Alberta.”
Flanked by her like-minded cabinet colleagues – that is, her former leadership opponents Energy Minister Brian Jean and Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz, to use their official titles unironically – she appeared at times to be about to burst into tears.
“We will not stand idly by while the federal government sacrifices our prosperity, our constitution and our quality of life for its extreme agenda,” the trio jointly said in a screechy official statement on the government’s web page.
The statement also trotted out as evidence the same old discredited studies by right-wing think tanks and consulting firms, one of them famously commissioned by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, used in the bumf accompanying the government’s Scrap the Cap advertising campaign, which uses taxpayer funds to campaign against the federal Liberals.
In person, speaking from the Legislature Building’s media room, a snarling Smith claimed “ultimately this cap will lead Alberta and our country into economic and societal decline.” (Readers who doubt my colourful descriptions are encouraged to watch the video of the news conference.)
“Once again,” she continued, hoarsely shouting, “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is putting reckless policy ahead of the needs and concerns of everyday Canadians.” (This can be disputed, but it’s a fair comment.)
“I made note that he would do this on his way out the door,” she went on. “It’s like a bad renter who’s burning the furniture on their way out.” (This is over the top.)
The presence of an official photographer, primed to get some good shots of the premier, eyes blazing, suggests this was a considered performance.
If so, one supposes it makes a nice distraction from the way the UCP is burning the furniture over at Alberta Health Services, as it pursues its vendetta against anyone involved in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the problems the government encountered last week defending its cruel and unneeded anti-transgender legislation.
If it was a genuine outburst, it is not exactly reassuring, especially with the premier threatening extra-constitutional use of her government’s unconstitutional Sovereignty Act as some sort of magical instant Notwithstanding Clause to block the federal regulations.
Since all the auguries suggest Trudeau and Guilbeault are in fact on their way out the door, if not quite as quickly as Smith and the federal Conservative Party would like, this reaction seems overwrought to say the least.
Well, perhaps Smith overindulged a little when she celebrated her carefully managed leadership review victory Saturday and was still a bit under the weather.
Or maybe she senses that this policy announcement, assailed by the oil industry and the federal Conservatives but also criticized by environmental groups and the federal NDP for not going far enough, might prove a boon to the foundering Liberals in parts of the country more concerned about global warming and less about oilpatch profits than Alberta.
Well, the result of today’s events south of the 49th Parallel are bound to give Smith something else to be either infuriated or ecstatic about. This time, though, more of us are likely to feel the same emotions, one way or the other.
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Nick Seebruch, editor
