Sometimes governments do things that are so controversial and divisive the issue can never be discussed rationally again. Think of the Mulroney government’s efforts at constitutional reform — the failed Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords — for example.
This week marks the 30th anniversary of another such policy effort. On Oct. 28, 1980, the Trudeau government introduced the National Energy Program, and in so doing ensured this country would not have a serious conversation about energy strategy for another three decades.
The infamous NEP was an integral part of Finance Minister Allan MacEachen’s 1980 budget, which came down at a time of economic crisis. If you think Canada’s economy is bad today, try the fall of 1980 on for size — double-digit unemployment, runaway inflation, skyrocketing interest rates, a large and growing federal deficit and a global energy crisis. It was into this cauldron that the NEP was thrown.
Its authors’ intentions were well-intentioned, if naive. Reduce Canada’s dependence on unstable and expensive sources of foreign oil; foster greater Canadian ownership of the oil and gas industry; promote stable low-priced energy to fuel our economy; and increase federal revenues to reduce the deficit. The NEP was one of those really big policy ideas.
And it was an abject failure on almost every level.
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Related:
Tar sands: Ottawa has to step in
Harper Raise’s Me Up
“God Bless” Stephen Harper and Rob Ford — Canada is finally starting to shake “Trudeaupia”.
“God Bless” the American tea party also. You, in your millions, woke us all up and “no” — we won’t go back to sleep.
Keep it going because it’s clear that Obama and the left have lost and he will soon be impeached on any number of grave offences.
His mistake — he went a bridge to far and exposed the “left” for what they are.
Nothing we in the west want anything to do with.
It’s far past time to kill the left. They are “dead ducks” and whether they know it or not the world is changing around them and we are objecting.
We don’t want their hands in our wallets and THAT is the bottom line.
Update:
On another vein the president of Argentina lost her husband yesterday. I feel for her and understand. A song for her and a wish that she takes her place in a country that truly needs her.
Communism gone. Liberty for everyone and a new day where capitalism reigns supreme. Time to get rich because her country can do that.
Point: Christina has a “window” now. When she gets over her grief she can take her country in a new direction. My view — she needs Harper and should consult him. Her country can do better and should tell Chavez to “shove it”.
Can Canada help a lady in distress so far away?
Yes, we can — and we should. It’s the right thing to do.
Small wonder Smitherman got blown away in Toronto. With the left it is always about a few stupid ducks or an equally ridiculous idea. Never mind that IF the left manages to kill the oil sands (as is their clear intent) the loss of funding will harm every province (and eventually, every family) in our vast dominion.
Not once have I heard an idea that might fill the huge financial gap they propose to create. Nothing — “nada” — silence.
Well, not exactly. They talk windmills and “corn power”, pissing off everyone within a thousand miles of where they propose to do these magic schemes.
And the bottom line?
We are stuck for our energy needs with “big oil” far into the foreseeable future because nothing that has been proposed works.
The lead article is correct and I continue to wonder who repeatedly elect these lefty “numphies” and in the process continue to bite off their nose in order to spite their faces.
I think it’s far past time that people tune into QP and watch them in action considering their hidden motives while they spout their lefty spin.
Like Toronto, who set a very recent example for the country, it’s time for all Canadians to sit back and reflect on their choices before they next vote. If I have it right about 20% of the voting public continue to lumber an entire country with their stupid ideas because most are to lazy to get off their couches at election time and end our misery.
This ‘lackadaisical’ attitude must end.
We can do better — and we should!
It was predicted years ago that Central Canada would make another play for the oil reserves in Alberta and Western Canada….and that they would do it under the phoney veil of “environmental stewardship”.
And federal government that tries it will be the last Canadian government.
I’m not certain you are correct, Joe. My problem is that everyone stays home on election day because they are so upset they no longer have any interest.
It’s been going on for decades and so the left “conquer” our country by default as the right sit in their armchairs and continue to wonder why MP’s who can’t do “thing one” to help them in their hour of need continue to retain their seats and make very loud, screeching noises in the hallowed halls of our parliament.
Rob Ford taught our entire country a very good lesson recently. “Change” is possible if enough people listen to their hearts and the anger spreads.
Time for everyone to get off their lazy asses and end the misery.
90% voter attendance in the next federal election. That’s what I want to see because then we will know we have a real government. Not a farce — the one that Harper continues to fight now.
That’s my view.
One line in the article that amazes me is the one that talks about the NEP being well intentioned. It was nothing of the sort. It was a malignant effort to kill the economic engine of Western Canada and keep us as vassels of the east for another generation. And it was supported in all the liberal reaches of the country.
It is one of my continuing goals to as much as possible, remind our citizens of this so we don’t elect another liberal for at least another generation.
Wayne
Agreed.
Fire them all (NDP and Bloc also). Harper needs a decent chance to get our country back on track and we need to get behind him.
The man is correct.
Give me a break. Ducks?
We kill them in their millions every fall and then we eat them.
And “yes” — they taste good apart from the small problem of picking lead shot (or would it be steel now) out of our teeth.
Nevermind…dead ducks are good — on the dinner table.
The USA is near financial collapse. Obama has exposed himself as a Chavez clone determined to turn that great democracy, a beacon of hope and freedom for the entire planet for generations, into yet another failed socialist state. To turn hard working Americans into a nation of welfare zombies dependent on goverment for everything. I severly dislike murderers, rapists, thieves etc. But I reserve my most fierce dislike for one especially dispicable calibre of person…….the traitor. The guilty verdict is a foregone conclusion. Now I can hardly wait for the initial sentencing on November 2nd, and the coup de grâce in 2012.
I couldn’t agree more with your sentiments, Jack.
Try “the fall of 1980 on for size — double-digit unemployment, runaway inflation, skyrocketing interest rates, a large and growing federal deficit and a global energy crisis. It was into this cauldron that the NEP was thrown”
Compare that statement to Biden’s comment yesterday about how only government involvement can solve things. The current regime in the US is like a reenactment of the Trudeau nightmare. Joe Biden: “Every single great idea that has marked the 21st century, the 20th century and the 19th century has required government vision and government incentive”
Poor Joe, he now joins Al Gore, who claimed to invent the internet, as among the most off the wall VPs American has ever seen “from a kitchen window in Alaska”. These guys belong in the USSR. Gosh do we ever mess up on political choices.
Joe is a joke but would be a much better president than Obama.
At least he listens and the US can tolerate him.
Obama is serious trouble for the US and needs to be stopped — immediately.
Those expecting the impending economic demise of the US will be gravely disappointed – the global economy will not allow that to happen.
Those expecting Obama to be impeached on any number of grave offences will be equally, and gravely, disappointed.
Those who expect the death their ideological opposites will be the most gravely disappointed, for as long as there has been more than one human leaving footprints in the dust someone has been calling them fool as a result of differing opinions.
This sort of ideological nonsense is not only unlike you Jack but it’s unbecoming as well – I can get fundamentalist partisan/ideological stuff like this on any number of blogs from all part of the political spectrum that I don’t read specifically because of the fundamentalist partisan/ideological bent…. you don’t belong with them.
“Those who expect the death their ideological opposites will be the most gravely disappointed,”
Agree Stage. With the fall of the Berlin Wall many of us made the mistake of buying into Francis Fukuyama’s “The End of History”. But the progressives rose again wearing a different garb and this time these parasites aren’t simply “over there”. Now they are dominating our campuses and our MSM. The process of progressive dominance has been going on in North America since end of the free marketer, classical liberal Wilfred Laurier and it began with vigor in the US with the Princeton academic Woodrow Wilson. Beware, because it never ends; until we run out of “other people’s money”.
“This sort of ideological nonsense is not only unlike you Jack but it’s unbecoming as well – I can get fundamentalist partisan/ideological stuff like this on any number of blogs from all part of the political spectrum that I don’t read specifically because of the fundamentalist partisan/ideological bent…. you don’t belong with them.”
A well deserved spanking. Thank you sir — please note I am a quick learner but also note that the popularity of this entry is now 100%. I haven’t managed to accomplish that in over a year.
“Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”
It’s really hard to figure this net stuff out.
Jack, I am a tough guy…a rather large strong ex-copper, afraid of absolutely nothing…some, when I was on the job, actually found me a little scary.
Buit that verssion of “You Raise Me Up” that you posted damned near had me in tears, it weas so beautiful and touching.
I think Stageleft made some good points about me because I do tend to run off at the mouth at times and that is to be avoided. Glad you liked the video…it’s one of my favourites.