John Ivison: Conservatives are suddenly torn between being pro-union and pro-development

The main talking point for Conservative MPs since the government tabled its omnibus economic bill, C-39, is that it’s all media bluster that will result in no projects being built.

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Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre set the tone by saying that the last time the Liberals introduced “sweeping” legislation to speed up project approvals with Bill C-5, all that got built was a new government department — the Major Projects Office — that has yet to approve a single new pipeline or mining project.

“How many more times will (the media) hype up these government announcements that result in nothing?” he queried on social media.

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The line was taken up by the party’s new communications director, Micah Green, who complained that an interview with Andrew Scheer, where the Conservative House Leader claimed 500 projects are still awaiting federal approval, was not used on evening news broadcasts.

Scheer himself said it was proof of “more media bias” on display, which is not a million miles from President Donald Trump’s claim that some media outlets report “fiction and lies” when covering him.

“They write glowing propaganda for the Liberal PM, who subsidizes them with your money, and censors out the Conservative response,” Scheer said.

This was curious because I watched a nine-minute interview with Scheer on CBC’s Power and Politics. He also appeared on CTV Power Play.

The problem was that he didn’t have much to say. “We are going to take our time to go through (C-39),” he said. “Conservatives have told workers we value them, we are championing them and we are on their side,” he said.

There is a reason why Conservatives don’t want to talk about the substance of C-39 (dubbed the “Building Canada Strong Act”), which promises to speed up the approval process for projects and reduce the number of labour disputes.

While the Liberals have thrown the NDP a lifeline with it by antagonizing organized labour, they have put Poilievre’s party in a box.

On his way into Wednesday’s Conservative caucus meeting, the able Quebec MP Gerard Deltell said his party supports certain elements of the bill, namely the commitment to one assessment per project, which was the subject of a private members’ bill he introduced in 2024 (Bill C-375).

But the section of the bill that appears to give the employment minister more discretion to end labour disputes by sending them to binding arbitration is a thornier issue for the Conservatives.

Jason Kenney, the former federal minister and Alberta premier, criticized his own Conservative party for choosing “populism over principle, and votes over economic growth” by cosying up to the unions before the last election.

Conservative MP Kyle Seeback, hit back by pointing out that the party received its first-ever national union endorsement and won ridings with strong labour movements.

Kenney’s response was stinging. He said there is a clear consensus among business leaders in the resource sector that Canada’s labour laws are a primary barrier to expanding exports.

“I know the Conservative Party has now adopted the very thoughtful economic strategy of ‘Boots Not Suits’ (actually ‘More Boots, Less Suits’), which has the wonderful advantage of rhyming but the disadvantage of rejecting the experience and advice of people who actually make investing decisions,” Kenney said.

If it had been a boxing match, the referee would have stopped it on the grounds of being a one-sided beatdown.

What we are seeing is the horseshoe theory of politics in action. The Conservatives on the right and the NDP on the left are not at the opposite ends of a spectrum but rather they are curving closer together like the ends of a horseshoe. They are united in being for more union power and against the certainty that is a prerequisite for investment.

Heather Exner-Pirot, the director of natural resources, energy and the environment at the Macdonald Laurier Institute, has been a harsh critic of the lost decade of investment in the oil and gas industry.

But as she wrote Wednesday in the National Post, “it’s time to acknowledge the Carney government has been good for the oil and gas sector … It’s time to acknowledge that the sector is once again investable; competitive even.”

Bill C-39 could easily have been tabled by Stephen Harper. It should be a no-brainer for Conservative MPs to support it. Perhaps they will in the end.

But this is not Harper’s party any longer. Continuity with his brand of mainstream, pragmatic economic conservatism has been severed and replaced by an appeal to groups that feel they have been economically, socially and politically left behind — an ever narrowing base of people with narrow sympathies.

National Post

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