Why do we have a country? Because people generally recognize that working together achieves many good things while constantly fighting makes daily life worse.
This principle seems to be eluding B.C. Premier John Horgan, his government associates, and some Vancouver-area residents.
They seem determined to impose their own opinions about the Trans Mountain pipeline on the rest of Canada, on the rest of British Columbia, and possibly even on their own city if opinion polls are accurate.
One bad result after another has emerged from the B.C. government’s intransigence.
Alberta’s preparation for cutting off oil shipments in response is bad even if it makes a certain strategic sense. Provinces should not be engaging in trade wars, despite the Supreme Court’s unwise decision last month to uphold the power of provinces to interfere with beer and wine sales and who knows what else.
Federal and provincial investment in the project would also be ill advised. Pipelines should be financially self-supporting. It’s amusing, though, that a little over 10 per cent of any money coming from Ottawa for the pipeline would originate with B.C. taxpayers.
The B.C. government’s stand can not in any way result in anything good. Not for British Columbia and certainly not for the country.
The only possible benefit for B.C. is some level of environmental protection.
But even that is purely speculative. A pipeline expansion might never result in an accident that damages the B.C. coast — let alone the kind of catastrophe that pipeline opponents seem to assume is guaranteed.
Greenhouse gas emissions would still exist because oil would simply be produced elsewhere.
And not building the line would certainly lead to new political and constitutional battles that would benefit no one anywhere in Canada. The people who talk about having to respect co-operative federalism seem to be ignoring reality; the pipeline project has become a spectacular showcase for the unco-operative federalism that premiers too often enjoy.
And the role of Indigenous people is unclear: some groups support the project; some firmly oppose it; some oppose it but seem open to financial persuasion. No good result there, either.
If grandstanding politicians are digging themselves into an ever deeper hole, what is going on?
For a start, it’s never wise to underestimate the role of egotism. Horgan has prestige at stake now. He does not look like a humble person at the best of times.
The overriding factor, though, is that the pipeline has moved into the realm of the utterly irrational.
It has transformed into a fetish object. It’s like a voodoo doll — keep sticking pins in it and maybe you can feel safe from all the real dangers of the world that you can’t do anything about.
You may worry about climate change; stopping the pipeline will do nothing about that but may make you feel better. You may (and should) worry about the ongoing devastation of ocean life; heck, can’t win 'em all but at least you can stop a pipeline. You may worry about the number of panhandlers and drug addicts on Vancouver streets; at least you can think you’re keeping oil off the beaches. And so on.
You may even recognize that the Horgan government’s legal branch decided not to prosecute the owner of the Mount Polley copper/gold mine for the disastrous 2014 tailings spill into Quesnel Lake. One of the largest environmental disasters in Canadian history will go unpunished. And you may recognize that the Vancouver area remains the largest coal export seaport in the world. But you can still hope the B.C. government acts on environmental issues that don’t visibly affect the B.C. economy.
Having to deal with the irrational is part of political life. The last few decades have seen the rise of what’s known as behavioural economics. Economists finally recognized that people are often not always rational decision makers. We probably need behavioural politics as well — a recognition that irrationality is often present and has to be dealt with rationally, not by pandering to emotion-driven fixations.
Albertans are in no position to complain. They have a long record of embracing irrational politics themselves. They have also for decades embraced the expansion of provincial power to frustrate a federal government they now think should somehow force through the Trans Mountain project (exactly how is almost never discussed).
The solution is to approach the conflict as calmly and unemotionally as possible, which Premier Rachel Notley has been doing. But voters and governments should also demonstrate sensible approaches to all public policy and public life whenever possible — which is called leading by example.
- reprinted from Calgary Prime Time, a Great West newspaper
