If I were an Albertan, I’d be steaming mad about the tariffs that are obviously coming on inexpensive Chinese electric vehicles — steaming more than fresh cowpie on a prairie winter morning.

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William Watson: Albertans should be steaming mad over EV tariffs Back to video

Cowpie, now that I’ve mentioned it, is what Albertans are being asked to eat.

For almost a decade now a federal government that takes its cues from Greta Thunberg, the Swedish Joan of Arc, has been counting down the final days to the existential climate cataclysm, warning us all that if we don’t dump fossil fuels and get to Net Zero pronto, life as we know it on Planet Earth will end and millions of species, very likely including our own, will face extinction. So self-righteous are they in this cause they’ve been teaching it to children, all the way down to pre-school.

A global emergency so dire, we’ve been told, requires that we renounce our resource birthright — several hundred years worth of proved reserves of oil and gas that customers around the world would love to buy — and accelerate the transition to non-fossil fuels, however unreliable they may be.

If that emergency means many oil and gas workers must lose well-paid, secure, unsubsidized jobs, well, so be it, that’s a sad, unfortunate side effect of rescuing the globe. But never fear, Ottawa will “have their backs” (it’s already taken everything else) and be there to help them transition from jobs in which they have years, even decades of experience and expertise to other jobs that likely will pay much less and be much less secure. But, hey, haven’t you always wanted to know the difference between Java and Mocha?

Speaking of backs, however, it now turns out there are some Canadian workers whose backs are more precious to Ottawa than those of oil and gas workers — even when rescuing humankind from Climate-geddon is in play. Stamping its foot, huffing its huff and puffing its puff, Ottawa says it is simply not going to allow cheap Chinese electric vehicles into the country if there’s any chance auto workers in Quebec and Ontario could lose their jobs as a result.

Actually, no one in Ottawa adds that bit about “in Quebec and Ontario” — they only ever refer to “Canadian jobs.” But everyone knows where Canada’s auto industry is situated, and it’s not Alberta. Or Saskatchewan. Everyone also knows where the federal Liberals and their NDP partners get their parliamentary seats, and that’s not Alberta or Saskatchewan, either. (Of 48 seats in the two provinces, each party has two in Alberta, none in Saskatchewan.)

There’s an existential climate crisis supposedly going on. Ottawa is so desperate to get people driving e-cars that for years it has been giving buyers cash (even if those working hard to get into the middle class typically don’t buy such cars). But now, when a cheap EV finally shows up at the border, one even a troglodyte like myself might actually be interested in buying, slam!, up go the tariffs and other forms of protection/harassment. If there’s any chance at all that an Ontario auto worker would have to start taking barista lessons, then just hold on a minute!, we’re not going to address the world’s climate problems “on the backs” of Canadian workers! Or at least not on the backs of our favourite subset of Canadian workers.

What’s even worse, the opposition Conservatives have now bought into the Liberal/NDP line that the Chinese EV option for saving the planet simply won’t be allowed. The Tories, too, Pierre Poilievre announced last week before a group of steelworkers, will raise tariffs on Chinese EVs, semiconductors, solar cells, “steel and aluminum products, graphite and other critical minerals, EV batteries, battery parts, permanent magnets and ship-to-shore cranes,” to quote the CP story we ran on Saturday.

I loved the sub-head we put on the print version of this story: “Most industry groups welcome restrictions.” What could be truer? Industry groups always welcome it when governments impose restrictions on their competitors. They get to keep doing what they’re doing. Canadian consumers have to keep paying what they’re paying for EVs — i.e., way too much since the Chinese can do them for half the price. And nobody has to transition to anything new.

I’m human. I do understand that motivation. We all love a quiet life. We all have government-relations lobbyists now. What I don’t understand is why a government that thinks the planet is at risk would fall for the protectionist line. If the planet really is at risk, won’t you do anything to save it? Tom Cruise would. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman would. But Canadian Liberals and NDPers won’t. Thus, auto jobs in Ontario and Quebec are sacrosanct but oil and gas jobs in Alberta and Saskatchewan are available for transitioning.

Please be assured of our undying affection, Albertans. We central-Canadians really do love you. It’s just that in moments of political expediency, we find you, well, expendable. Best to watch your own backs.