“Net-Zero Tyranny”

Pierre Poilievre put forward a solid pitch to voters during his visit to St. John’s on Tuesday, focusing on the “lost Liberal decade” and the policies that contributed to the “poorest growth in the G7.”

He used a letter sent to political leaders by the CEOs of Canada’s 14 largest energy companies as a frame for his case, contrasting Conservative positions with those of Mark Carney’s Liberals on five key demands: the need to simplify regulations by overhauling C-69, the Impact Assessment Act; the need to ensure major projects are approved within six months; the removal of the cap on oil sands emissions the CEOs argue will shrink production; the requirement to kill the carbon tax on large emitters; and the desirability of creating ownership opportunities for Indigenous Canadians by extending federal loan guarantees.

What’s good for the Canadian goose doesn’t hold for the American eagle. At least, not for former Brookfield chairman Mark Carney.

That’s because the Liberal candidate for prime minister, a vocal opponent of major new pipelines in Canada, is now facing scrutiny as Brookfield Asset Management — the investment giant he once chaired — closes in on a USD$9 billion deal to acquire Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel transport system in the United States.

‘Though Carney is smooth and superficially sophisticated, he’s cut from the same fanatical net-zero cloth as Trudeau.’

Donald Trump’s continuing rhetoric about making Canada the 51st State is certainly annoying, but one can’t deny that his apparent underlying message — that Canada is performing far below its potential and needs to get serious or its very existence may be threatened — carries a serious point.

It is typical of people like Liberal Leader Mark Carney, who have spent significant time on either side of the increasingly porous border between the public and private sectors, that they have amassed a variety of side-appointments to various public and private entities, corporate boards and governmental and quasi-governmental advisory boards.

With Mark Carney in the prime minister’s chair, it’s safe to assume his brand of climate-focused policy would drive the next wave of federal priorities. On the surface, that might sound appealing to those pushing net zero emissions.

But, when you peel back the layers, especially on the topic of net-zero housing, what you’re left with is an agenda that threatens to make housing even more unaffordable than is currently believed by the average Canadian. On the campaign trail he talks about building ‘millions of homes’ with no experience or real knowledge of what it would take to build these homes.

You don’t need a read-between-the-lines dictionary to figure out where Prime Minister Mark Carney could well be heading.

On Thursday, Carney is talking about U.S. President Donald Trump and how the Americans are hitting the Canadian auto industry with tariffs.

Carney is talking about April 2 when Trump is scheduled to take other swings at Canada.