Numerous studies have shown that people’s degree of insulation from the real world reduces their empathy for the rest of humanity. Specifically, the more money you have, the more you believe you deserve it. The social media term for this is “entitlement.” The basic concept is “greed.”
As any good competitor knows, the best time to move ahead of the opposition is when they are at a disadvantage. This is the “Kick them when they’re down” strategy, and in the jungle of the business world, it’s a sure winner.
Scroll to Smith’s meeting with Carney this week, and she played the MAGA score note-perfectly. She presented a list of demands that regressed to no action on climate change at all, and threatened a “constitutional crisis” if she didn’t get everything she wanted.
As every playground bully knows, this is the “I’m taking my ball and going home” ploy. Alberta separatism has long been hanging over the country like a small dark cloud that waxes and wanes with the fortunes of the oil lobby. It’s an attitude of entitlement that the Rest of Canada is only there to play backup while the true stars of Alberta get to reap the rewards of their good luck. Put in Smith’s terms, anyone that keeps her and her oil patch buddies from making a buck is the enemy.
Put Canadian terms, right now we need to band together and forget our sibling rivalries in the face of a serious external threat.
The Bottom Line
When the trade war became reality, Canadians lost a lot of the insulation that our comfortable lifestyle created for us. Most Canadians who had grievances against Justin Trudeau and the federal Liberals took a step back and saw that the enemy isn’t the Liberals in Ottawa, it’s the madman in the White House. We realized the unity of the country is more important than our petty scraps across the neighbourhood fence.
Except Danielle Smith, who is, as usual, on her own campaign to make money.
If she precipitates a “Unity Crisis” that pits her Big Oil interests against the rest of the country, she’s in for a big surprise.