Post election, what does it all mean? Good question. I decided to try to answer the question by running it through TerryAI, the one I carry around on my shoulders. Totally proprietary, fed by the most insane info flow you could imagine. Which guarantees unique results. Some may find them odd or offensive, but rest assured, TerryAI could not care less.
Q: What does this election result mean for Canada?
A: Aviation circles are familiar with the term CFIT, or Controlled Flight into Terrain. A CFIT is an accident in which a fully functional aircraft, under full control, crashes into the surrounding terrain somewhat inexplicably. A common thread of CFITs involves an apparent loss of situational awareness due to such potential causes as navigational equipment failure or inadequacy, or fatigue. The pilot becomes unaware of their actual position relative to the terrain below or ahead.
Hmm, that was kind of abstract. I reran the query, seeking objectivity.
Q: Please solve as an equation:
One world-class Greenpeace activist +
One UN special envoy for climate action and finance +
(One productivity/investment crisis * break the emergency glass factor) –
Record governmental spending on capital-inefficient programs –
Pipeline/LNG construction head fakes (I mean really) +
Multiple pie-in-the-sky green “investments” (uncompetitive battery factories + green hydrogen to Germany type programs)
= ?
Wow it got even weirder.
A:
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
“Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
I could have one of the variables wrong in the equation. Carney has said he supports the construction of national oil/natural gas pipeline and LNG projects. If true, it would be good, but would require him to abandon his self-proclaimed “Values”. What more could anyone hope for from a leader?
Most Canadians care not a hoot about energy as long as the heat and electrify are there, the bills are reasonable, and gasoline prices aren’t insane. That is why the old carbon tax was doomed; eventually the entire country would notice ridiculous bills and start saying “Hey what the hell is this?” And they did. And so the consumer carbon tax had to go.
Carbon Tax 2.0 will be refined, and insidious. It will hit businesses directly, and consumers indirectly, so their ire will go towards anyone that sells them anything and not the government. Who notices capital that does not invest, and flees the country?
Oh, Alberta will notice. And Saskatchewan. And other pockets of the country that do not matter electorally.
These are not going to be fun years, and Trump might well take a back seat to Canada’s own proprietary fireworks. Good luck to y’all.
Come see the lighter side of energy, and think of it as you never have before in The End of Fossil Fuel Insanity – the energy story for those that don’t live in the energy world, but want to find out. And laugh. Available at Amazon.ca, Indigo.ca, or Amazon.com.
Read more insightful analysis from Terry Etam here, or email Terry here.