Talk About A Hidden Agenda

Why aren't we hearing more from Dion and his plans for the energy sector?

Thursday, February 1

A Bourque Exclusive

LIB MP HOLLAND GOES NUCLEAR ON KYOTO - by Charles Adler

After several hours of hot Kyoto air in the House of Commons this week, one is left to wonder what specifically a Liberal government under Stephane Dion would do if Canadians give him the keys to kingdom.

If Ajax Pickering MP Mark Holland was telling the truth today on Adler on Line, Canadians ought to be very frightened. When I pressed Holland to get beyond the plattitudes about how sincere Mr Dion is about his love of the environment, the Liberal MP blew my audience away. His rhetoric indicated that a Dion government would get into the face of Canada's energy producers.

Little doubt was left in the mind of observers that the Holland/Dion strategy was to be as confrontational as possible with Alberta voters and their provincial government.

Holland said a Liberal government would manage Alberta resources responsibly. He said, "We need to stabilize the oils sands. We are not going to allow companies to exploit that resource, to pump it out as fast as you can and give it to the Americans and blow out our emissions targets."

When I confronted Mr. Holland about serious job losses that would surely be the result of this kind of federal government policy, he talked about a British study that said short term pain was needed in the interests of dealing with climate change. This was necessary, said Mr. Holland, to prevent longer term economic pain.

Is this the real agenda of sustainable development that Stephane Dion has been talking about? The voters in the coming months leading up to an election campaign need to ask themselves four questions.

1) Do they want the federal government to impose its will on Canada's energy producers and the provincial government of Alberta.

2) Do they think the capital markets in Alberta could survive an all out assault on them by the federal government, one which would dwarf the Liberal Natioanal Energy Program a generation ago.

3) Do they think the people of Alberta will take this sitting down. Or will many of them rise up and insist that their govenrment roll out a Quebec style referendum?

4) After years of listening to the Liberals talking about Tory hidden agendas, has Mr Holland given us an insight into the hidden Liberal agenda?

I expect Mr. Dion and his mouth pieces to say that Mark Holland was not speaking the Liberal opposition when he dropped the Liberal Kyoto bomb on Adler on Line. But that shoudn't allow any of us who want this country to stay united to let our guard down. The Liberals have talked a good game on National Unity. But it seems every time there is a close call on this country being dismembered, a Liberal seems to be sitting in the prime minister's office. Canada's economy is a tower of strength right now. We can only hope that it continues to be sustainable if and when voters take a leap into the darkness with Dion.

Charles Adler is the host of Adler on Line on the Corus Radio Network
Listen to Adler's interview with Mark Holland by logging on to www.charlesadler.com