Neil Waugh
Thu, October 16, 2008
Advantage, Quebec
By NEIL WAUGH
It's Wednesday morning coming down from the federal election and Ed Stelmach puts his own unique spin on the deal.
"Some partied, some cried," the Alberta premier sighed. "Let things settle down."
It's not certain what Steady Eddie did on election night after wearing a self-imposed gag throughout the entire event, despite Alberta's hydrocarbon economy being the designated whipping boy of all four national campaigns. And Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe's whipping boy, in particular.
But there was no doubt what Duceppe was doing after he miraculously turned back the Tory tide in his province, wrecking Stephen Harper's party.
Yesterday, the bowed-but-not-entirely-beaten prime minister issued what you could easily take as a public apology to his party and his Alberta supporters in Calgary.
Where he said he now has to listen to "other voices."
And none was braying louder than Duceppe, who urged the PM yesterday to "respect the democratic choice" of the Quebec people, and be less "partisan" and "authoritative."
Except Gilles was only getting warmed up.
There was no Toronto Maple Leafs hockey sweater on Duceppe's Christmas wish list. But there was lots of other stuff.
That would include stimulating the Quebec economy, support plans for manufacturing and forestry, restore economic development cuts and culture grants, do something for the unemployed and fix Quebec's alleged fiscal "imbalance".
But most of all to "reduce Quebec's dependence on oil and transfer $820 million a year for education."
This was the Bloc Quebecois's constant theme during the campaign. And you can bet Duceppe's not going to drop it now after the pounding Harper's Conservatives took in Quebec. Despite doing everything, including declaring Quebec a "nation" within a country, to elect more MPs.
"Reduce oil dependence" is a sneaky way of saying implement Kyoto. And transfer all the carbon tax and cap-and-trade booty from Alberta's thriving energy economy to Quebec's failed rust-belt industries.
"For Quebec, it means profits," Duceppe beamed during the campaign. "It means a lot of money."
He's not about to let up now that Harper has voices rattling around his noggin, and yesterday demanded the PM "take account of the Quebecois reality."
To some extent, Harper did, telling reporters how he wants to "make sure some of the diversity of opinions are incorporated into the government's programs."
And how he now wants to "try and listen more where we haven't taken a hard position."
That's what a second minority government will do to a guy.
But listen to who? Because Stelmach also released his post-election shopping list.
Sadly, it wasn't the one many Albertans may have felt he was suppressing for the last six weeks for fear of scaring off Harper's thin southern Ontario support.
It only contained three vague points.
The first is the "harmonization" of Canadian climate-change plans, even though the Alberta PCs had earlier refused to buy into a national carbon-cap-and-trade scheme.
And Albertans should be thankful for that.
The list also calls for a definition of the bitumen export ban that Harper sprang on the unsuspecting Stelmachistas near the end of the campaign. Especially how it applies to "dirty" oil imported to Quebec and other eastern refineries.
Stelmach also wants "predictability and consistency" when it comes to climate change and energy policy.
Because it's apparently scaring off the international investors with the billions to keep the Alberta boom rolling along, although the capital market meltdown and gyrating energy prices might have something to do with it.
Yesterday, EnCana CEO Randy Eresman blamed market conditions for the delay of his corporate split.
"After last night there was a clear thumbs-down for the carbon tax," Stelmach said.
"That's a huge relief."
But it was pretty obvious he hadn't been told of Duceppe's demands and the voices in Harper's head.
"Canadians were concerned about jobs and they were concerned about the economy," Stelmach continued.
"Even though it's a minority government, I'm of the firm belief we've settled this issue of the carbon tax," he insisted.
Not with Gilles Duceppe - and not Ed Stelmach - now setting the national agenda.
AI
