You can be sure that many Canadians did not pay a whole lot of attention to Tuesday’s announcement in Ottawa on the Trans Mountain pipeline project.
That’s because for a large multitude of our compatriots, a much bigger story broke the same day – ABC cancelling Roseanne Barr’s “hit sitcom” over an offensive tweet.
But as the dust settles from that cultural calamity, and as Ontarians come out of their electoral hibernation, an ever-growing number of fellow citizens will soon wake up and realize that they are about to own a 65-year-old pipeline at a cost of $4.5 billion and perhaps billions and billions more for its expansion.
With ownership comes attitude. Across the country there is already a fair amount of anger, frustration and contempt for B.C. and its obstructionist behaviour and rhetoric toward the pipeline expansion. Those feelings are based on the idea that B.C., the South Coast in particular, is working against the national interest by trying to stop the project. That it is doing serious damage to Alberta’s economy and harming Canada’s image abroad and the bottom line at home. Passions have been tempered, however, by the fact that it’s always been Kinder Morgan, a big outfit based in Texas, that was taking the direct financial hit.
Not anymore. Not only will this unwanted expenditure be blamed on B.C.’s hordes of “eco-nutjobs” and its “Keg premier.” From now on every delay tactic will be seen as costing the Canadian taxpayer in his or her pocketbook. From Chocolate Lake, N.S. to Slave Lake, Alta., the sight of a Burnaby sit-in or die-in aired on the tube will be greeted with shouts of “Send in the Mounties!” and “Send in the Army!” There will be zero patience for B.C.’s protesters, court challenges and self-ordained orca huggers. In other words, this could get very uncivil.
It’s possible that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau thinks he can turn on the money taps and woo the leadership of the holdout First Nations with fat benefit agreements and extra-special environmental assurances. That at least some of them will cave in, the courts will rule in Ottawa’s favour and the opposition will fragment and, if not fade away, at least back down.
But that may not be the political calculation at all. In fact, there is a real chance that the Liberal brain trust is positioning Trudeau to tap into all that national anger toward B.C., let it get fanned into an absolute rage, and then have his very own FLQ moment in the sun. He might not send in the tanks, but he could score big with a milder and perhaps slightly medicated version of his dad’s famous “Just watch me.” Under effective lighting and with suitably reverent commentary on CBC, it could be the perfect way to impress a sufficient number of Canadian voters that he is tough enough and rough enough for a second term.
He wouldn’t do that to B.C., you say? Just watch him.
