Watching reactions on Facebook of people we know in the oilpatch was almost comical on the night of the Oct. 19 federal election.
To sum it up, the world was going to end.
“2015 election. The year we ruined our lives,” said one.
“What are we going to do when the oilpatch and economy stops, just like it did the last time the Liberals were in power?” said another.
Others were jokingly considering a move to southern locales, ones without tax treaties. That might have to do with the planned increase on top income earners from the new Liberal government, as well as a similar move by the Alberta NDP government.
Hyperbole, of course. But there is some justification for this concern.
It was, after all, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s father, the late former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, who brought in the National Energy Program. Is this why Alberta went almost entirely Conservative blue, again? Probably not, but it was surely in some people’s minds.
Uncertainty about the moves the Alberta NDP government will make has already stalled investment in that province. Uncertainly about a new federal Liberal government, with plans to take action on carbon dioxide emissions, compound that initial unease.
The most recent boom was a good one, and a relatively long one. But that had much more to do with the world price of oil than who resided in 24 Sussex Drive.
We also have to ask ourselves this: Since the 2008-2009 Enbridge Alberta Clipper project, how many major pipelines have been built outside of Alberta? If a Conservative government had been so supportive, why haven’t any been built? For a while there it looked like American stalling on Keystone XL meant the Conservatives would have pushed to have Northern Gateway under construction by now. It hasn’t happened. No liquefied natural gas terminals have started construction on the British Columbia coast, either, and recent media reports are now indicating we might have missed the boat on that. The talk of Canada becoming an “energy superpower” was not followed up by a lot of direct action.
Will it be any better under a Trudeau Liberal government? Some might say that the completion of just one of those projects, in particular the Energy East Pipeline, would be more than the Conservatives accomplished.
So we’re going to have to take a wait-and-see approach. The natural instinct of most people in the oilpatch is to recoil in disgust at the idea of a Liberal government. But for the next four years, it’s the government we have, so we’re going to have to make the best of it.
