Commentary: A historic alignment of Calgary and Ottawa against Canada’s oil and gas sector – By Jesse Kline (National Post) / Oct 21 2021
Until now, we could at least count on the government of Alberta and municipalities like Calgary to defend the interests of the natural resource sector
“As your new mayor, my first order of business will be to shoot us all in the collective foot”: this is essentially what Calgary mayor-elect Jyoti Gondek said when she told an interviewer that her first big act would be to declare a “climate emergency,” so the city can “move past” oil and gas. It’s a foolhardy mission that will see political leaders in Ottawa and Calgary aligned in their opposition to Canadian energy.
The ink hadn’t even dried on the ballots when Gondek appeared on the “Real Talk” podcast with former Edmonton radio host Ryan Jespersen the morning after Monday’s municipal vote. Asked what her “top priority” would be, Gondek responded by saying that, “We have had the opportunity to declare a climate emergency for years … so let’s get serious, let’s declare this.”
Which would be an odd thing for any mayor to say. After all, even if Calgary’s over 1.3 million residents gave up their pickup trucks and steaks and started driving Teslas and eating Beyond Meat, it would have absolutely no effect on global temperatures.
And unlike declaring an emergency over a flood or some other natural disaster, climate change is not going to be solved any time soon. What could possibly be the point of declaring an “emergency” that is likely to last for decades, if not centuries?
