Who’s Stupid?

Patrick Brethour isn’t the first, and I’m sure won’t be the last, reviewer to question my right to comment on Alberta simply because I live in Quebec. I can only imagine his disdain had he known that I am not only a Montrealer but also an immigrant who grew up in Ontario. Putting that aside, the heart of the matter is Brethour’s worship of the free market, which is largely responsible for the environmental and economic catastrophe that is gradually levelling Alberta. This clinging to a barren 19th-century capitalist dogma as the saviour that will lead us out of the wilderness dangerously delays action. Yet Brethour exalts this fanciful notion of the free market as policy. Trouble is the free market has nothing to do with the well-being of the commonwealth of the planet. Markets have one purpose: to chase money. If they have to strip forests, dig up whole provinces, contaminate fresh water, poison the air and destroy the earth, so be it. Unless they are checked. The tale of the free marketer is a gritty and edgy narrative. Not well woven. Not a smooth novel or a Renaissance painting. But a messy episodic mosaic of crazy-eyed men bent on nuking the earth, if that’s what it takes. And when free market acolytes feel their temple of George Bush is under siege, they accuse the apostates with the worst sin of all: “anti-Americanism.” Then they dismiss their complaints as “charmless” and their voices as “marginal.” I guess my interview with Syncrude president Jim Carter was an inconvenience to be ignored. Just as the reference to energy companies not paying income taxes was not my assessment but a quote from a Fort McMurray tax collector angry that energy companies don’t pay their fair share. But distortion is part of the armoury of the embattled faithful. Never mind that Albertans are destroying the land beneath their feet and the water they drink, and hugely intensifying greenhouse gas emissions to feed the American gluttony. Never mind that most of the profits flow to foreigners. Never mind that what’s left over is consumed in an inflationary feeding frenzy. None of that matters as long as men of power dominate. Is this Stupid to the Last Drop? Yes. Are the smart men of business that partake in this rape stupid? Yes. Are the politicians who allow it to happen stupid? Yes. Are those who re-elect them over and over again stupid? Yes. They all may benefit now, but what of the estate they eventually will bequeath to the next generation in this finite world? It is small comfort to think that some day proud Albertans will have to swallow the bitter pill of culpability. But it won’t happen. For the simple reason that Alberta will be as empty as the East Coast fishery, as barren as Quebec’s Boreal forest and as stripped as the Prairie grasslands. All of these disasters, by the way, are mentioned in my book. Alberta as metaphor. We are all willing players.