The absolute arrogance of our prime minister is breathtaking.
Why the leaders of other major countries even bother with Justin Trudeau is strange, given how he treats them if they ask for support. It’s probably because they vainly cling to the quaint hope that, at heart, Canada remains an ally, despite the dreary theatrical antics of its prima donna prime minister.
Of course, the bosses of countries that don’t have strong ties to Canada are far less circumspect in showing their disdain – the leaders of India, Saudi Arabia and, most recently, China have shown their contempt for Trudeau in no uncertain manner.
The latest embarrassing example of how we treat our supposed friends came last week when Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida arrived seeking help in securing liquefied natural gas supplies to replace imports from Russia.
Now, you’d be forgiven for imagining such a request would be a slam-dunk, empty net winner for all concerned. After all, Trudeau has repeatedly waxed lyrical about standing shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of that country early last year. So replacing Russian gas with Canadian supplies would certainly seem a solid example of such support.
And it’s not as though Japan wants the stuff for free, or that we haven’t any left in the ground. We’ve oodles of it and the price received for LNG in the Asian market is much higher than what the Americans pay for our gas flowing southward out of Wild Rose land these days. Hey, let them liquefy it, export it and pocket the mark-up.
OK, it must be admitted that, thanks to the Liberal government’s distaste for anything remotely resembling an Alberta natural resource, the infrastructure needed to liquefy gas and export it in bulk via tanker remains sorely lacking.
Anyhow, Kishida politely inquired if we’d be open to boosting such exports to his country. In response he got one of those smarmy Trudeau lectures about the need to save the world from the horrors of global warming by transitioning to a green economy, although his own government isn’t showing much desire to transition away from spending all that moolah our energy exports provide in greater abundance than anything else this country currently produces.
“Even as we do talk about things like LNG and other traditional sources of energy, we know the world is moving aggressively and meaningfully towards decarbonizing,” is how Trudeau responded – in diplomatic terms that’s a public slap in the face for the leader of the world’s third biggest economy and a major potential investor in Canada.
But it was to be expected. After all, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz – leader of the globe’s fourth largest economy - received essentially the same message back in August when visiting Ottawa in a vain effort to facilitate more Canadian natural gas supplies being shipped to Europe.
The prime minister told Scholz there wasn’t a business case for increasing LNG exports, which is about as circular an excuse anyone could arrive at considering it is Trudeau’s own government that has scared away any investment aimed at expanding such facilities. Who’d dare risk their own capital in such a hostile political environment?
Sadly such a dismissive attitude isn’t simply rude and economically stupid in a country that relies so much on energy exports, but it’ll have zero effect on reducing global carbon emissions.
Those bastions of democracy and steadfast promoters of LGBTQ rights, Algeria and Qatar, will no doubt merrily fill the void by increasing their gas exports, leaving Trudeau to pontificate and preen for the cameras ad nauseam.
Oh Canada, what are we doing to ourselves?
Chris Nelson is a syndicate columnist.
