Damn, it actually worked.
The protests, the outrage, the valid cries of discrimination against Alberta — they turned the Senate of Canada around.
Overnight, one Senate committee voted to kill Bill C-48, the so-called tanker ban; and another committee accepted Bill C-69, but apparently with all the crucial amendments demanded by both industry and the Alberta government.
“A very good 12 hours for Alberta,” said Sen. Doug Black, who has worked furiously to stop these bills from literally shattering Alberta’s energy industry.
Premier Jason Kenney claimed his share of the credit Thursday, pointing out that within three hours of being sworn in he testified to the Senate committee hearings on Bill C-48.
Then he went to Ottawa and told the committee on Bill C-69, which would regulate all big resource projects, that this crisis could become a genuine threat to national unity.
Rachel Notley had a major impact, too.
As Kenney’s predecessor, she called the tanker bill “a stampede of stupid” and urged senators: “Toss C-48 in the garbage where it belongs.” Those lines are still repeated in the Senate.
But while Notley pressed the case with genuine force, I’m not sure she alarmed the more ossified federal specimens.
With his hotter rhetoric and vows to retaliate, Kenney did begin to genuinely worry the Trudeau Liberals and their proxies.
They know he has firm conservative allies in at least five other provinces. They realize that under sufficient provocation, Kenney will cut oil shipments to east and west.
And, as the premier said Thursday, if the Liberals still fight for C-48 and the original C-69, they will be credibly accused in the fall election of killing jobs and prosperity.
But this is not over.
The full Senate still has to endorse the committee recommendation to drop Bill C-48. That vote will come after the Senate reconvenes May 27.
Kenney launched his own lobbying campaign, saying he will write to all senators urging them to back the committee decision. He will try to pull all six Alberta senators into line at a lunch meeting next week.
The federal government will employ the usual arm-twisting among senators, especially the so-called independents who were appointed by the Liberals.
But the Trudeau crew have to ask themselves — how would it look for senators to overturn the verdict of their own committee?
Dictatorial, that’s how.
Bill C-69 is more complicated. It will go back to the House of Commons with 195 amendments. That alone shows what a mess this legislation was.
Black is optimistic but says he’ll spend the weekend talking to stakeholders and studying amendments. “The test is whether the bill as amended will bring investment back to Canada.”
The tanker bill drama Wednesday night turned on Paula Simons, the former Postmedia columnist who has been a Trudeau-appointed senator only since last October.
Aware that the bill is deeply damaging to Alberta, Simons nonetheless tried to find some compromise that would make it work.
She also abstained from approving several unamended clauses. Her tactics deeply annoyed Conservative senators like Manitoba’s Don Plett, who simply wanted the bill killed.
They were starting to see Simons as a Trudeau sellout looking for a way to approve C-48.
As the final vote neared, Plett said to Simon:
“If the good senator across is concerned about her province as she says she is, she could at least at this committee stop this bill from passing … instead she abstains, and then says she wants to help Albertans.”
He even tweeted his contempt. The hostility was remarkable.
With cool sarcasm, Simon thanked Plett for his sage advice.
She was last in the alphabetical voting order. Everyone in the room knew it was a dead heat. Bill C-48 would live or die by one word from the rookie.
"No,” Simons said.
And at that dramatic moment, quite possibly, Alberta began to win this fight.
Registered User
Bill C48 - Senate vote
Originally Posted by ExtraSlow
This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
Posting Permissions
Quote
