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National Post

John Rustad: It's time to end David Eby's nation-building blockade

I recently took a stroll from the B.C. Legislature to the site where the Sir John A. Macdonald statue used to reside in front of Victoria's City Hall. I did so because I am increasingly contemplative about nation-building as it relates to the critical juncture in history, we, as Canadians, currently face. Article content Now, it is without question that our first prime minister had many flaws, all of which have been well-documented in recent years. Yet, what cannot be discounted or disputed, is his leadership in Confederation and the evolution of Canada, facilitated in large part through his dream of building a transcontinental railroad. Article content The Canadian Pacific Railway, as it eventually would come to be known, was Macdonald's path to quelling American settlement desires in the west, expanding the dominion, and entrenching Canadian sovereignty. Article content Article content Today, we sit at a crossroad that is eerily reminiscent those times. The American president continues to openly muse about the annexation of Canada. There is a desperate need to build projects of national interest that grow infrastructure, trade corridors and access to international markets. And collectively, we are facing grave internal threats to preserving the sanctity of Canadian independence, national unity and social cohesion. Article content I am sorry to report that the B.C. government now stands as the country's largest impediment to tackling these dire challenges. More specifically, Premier David Eby is openly demonstrating that he and his cabinet are more concerned with playing divisive politics than doing what is best for the country as well as British Columbians desperate for an economic buffer to their gross fiscal negligence. Article content Article content More concerningly is how they are speaking out of both sides of their mouths in doing so. The prime minister and all of Canada's thirteen premiers just wrapped up a summit in Saskatoon, concluding with a joint statement that committed to 'work urgently to get Canadian natural resources and commodities to domestic and international markets, such as critical minerals and decarbonized Canadian oil and gas by pipelines' which are 'crucial for driving Canadian productivity growth, energy security, and economic competitiveness.' BC was a signatory to the communique. Article content Article content Yet two days later, Eby trotted out his Energy and Climate Solutions Minister Adrian Dix to assert that the idea of a pipeline 'doesn't make sense to us.' Dix went on to declare that 'we have a different view' and emphatically confirmed that 'The premier has expressed very clearly his view of non-support for that.' Article content So, in front of a national audience, the government formally agrees to engage with the rest of the country in fast-tracking energy projects of national significance. Yet when speaking in B.C., the premier has his lieutenants march forth with messages of staunch opposition to any pipeline being built to the province's northern coast.