Brad Wall is former Premier of Saskatchewan
I’m not sure how popular bowling is today, but Tami and I went again recently and had a great time! There might even be real life lessons and learnings one can glean from the game – like the reset button.
That’s the button you push – if your favorite lanes are not automated – after your turn at trying to knock down as many pins as you can. All the pins are then reset to their original position. The reset reestablishes.
The inference of the Great Reset advocated by our newly re-elected minority Liberal government and others on the left means something quite different: a reset to something different. It is a slogan that aspires to some new world order without Canadian mining, Canadian oil and natural gas, or (presumably) other emitting industries. The Great Reset will be so great, in fact, that we will not only get by without reliable baseload energy and resource sector jobs, but thanks to the magic of government, income inequality will be a thing of our dark Darwinian past.
The Great Reset will be the natural follow up to the pandemic, or so goes the new narrative.
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You know, they may have been right after all. Turns out, there does seem to be a global reset happening. And to the extent it represents unprecedented economic opportunities for Canadian natural resources, agriculture and manufacturing and processing, it could indeed be described as ‘great.’
In a recent Bloomberg interview, Goldman Sachs Global Head of Commodities Research Jeff Currie talked about a different kind of reset, “Poor returns saw capital redirected away from the old economy to the new economy. It’s not unique to Europe. It’s not unique to energy. It’s a broad-based old-economy problem.”
He continues… “This is the first inning of a multi-year, potentially decade-long commodity supercycle. It’s driven by the war on climate change, the war on income inequality. All of these dynamics lead to a structural rise in commodity demand against this whole idea of the revenge of the old economy.”
The evidence in support of what Mr. Currie is forecasting is all around us: high gasoline prices, higher grocery bills, general inflation increases and attendant upward pressure on interest rates are in the news and in our lives. Rising costs for food, gas and everything, combined with higher interest rates, seems incongruous to the pursuit of income equality, doesn’t it? Especially given the disproportionate pain that will be visited on the middle and lower classes.
As this super cycle gets underway and prices go up, along with economic opportunities for places like Western Canada that are prolific sources of oil and gas, fertilizer, forestry, and food, there will be a lot less patience on the part of voters for federal policies that both exacerbate the increasing cost of living and interfere with Canada’s ability to take economic advantage of the commodity super cycle.
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There are signs that all of this is already confounding the leaders among the Great Resetters. Take President Joe Biden, for example, who just before telling those assembled in Glasgow at COP26 about how the U.S. was back in the fight against climate change, he was begging OPEC to open up production to help provide gasoline price relief for his citizens.
Maybe voters, themselves, are at the very beginning of another cycle – a reset. One where they see the costs of Canada’s left wing and anti-natural resource policies, inflation, shortages and higher interest rates. They will soon feel, if they are not already, the negative impact of a federal government that is not only disinterested in monetary policy, as the PM famously confessed during the election, but lacking focus on economic matters.
But maybe Canadians will demand their own Great Reset – a reset back to a focus on the fundamentals: the economy, monetary policy, a serious approach to international trade promotion of sustainable natural resource opportunities, even as we also focus on opportunities in the new economy such as energy transition.
The reset button applies to more than just bowling, according to Brad Wall. Photo licensed via Storyblocks
After all, it is a strong economy, and the taxes and resources it provides, that is the most progressive societal force of all. It provides not only economic opportunity for the next generation of Canadians, but it funds, directly and indirectly, all the quality of life programs and supports that we prize.
And while we are on the subject, voters may also conclude that there is not much that is ‘progressive’ about policies that cause inflation, interest rate hikes, impose sky high carbon taxes, that make it harder for middle and lower class Canadians to afford food and shelter, never mind quality of life essentials such as access to post-secondary education and quality health care.
It would seem that the Great Resetters have misappropriated both the terms ‘reset’ and ‘progressive.’
Those whose policies are ushering in a commodities super-cycle and a fast-rising cost of living that will hit the middle class (and those wanting to join it ) the hardest, might in fact learn a lot from a night of bowling.
They’d have fun of course … and they could also benefit from the lesson as to what a ‘reset’ might actually mean.
Premier of Saskatchewan from 2007 until 2018, Brad Wall was widely regarded as the most popular premier in Canada. A die-hard Roughriders fan who somehow always picked the Riders in the radio show “Premier’s Picks,” he’s also an enormous fan of Waylon Jennings.
These days Wall tries to spend a lot of time on horseback in southwest Saskatchewan, where he resides in the Cypress Hills. We hope to hear from him from time to time, if the fancy strikes him, when he’s not riding or trying to rope.
Wall is a special advisor to legal firm Olser, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, and sits on the boards of Whitecap Resources Inc, AltaLink, Maxim Power Corp. and NexGen Energy Ltd. He is the principal of a consulting business he started called Flying W Consulting. He’s volunteer chair for the STARS Air Ambulance Fleet Replacement Capital Campaign, a volunteer on the Canadian Cattlemens Association advocacy committee, on the advisory board of the Canadian American Business Council and the Fraser Institute. Wall also writes periodic opinion pieces for the National Post.
https://www.facebook.com/BradWall306/
https://twitter.com/BradWall306
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradwall306/
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- 0059 Southeast College Heavy Equipment Operator0059 Southeast College Heavy Equipment Operator
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- 0055 Smart Power Be Smart with your Power office0055 Smart Power Be Smart with your Power office
- 0053 Kingston Midstream Westspur Alameda Click Before You Dig large text0053 Kingston Midstream Westspur Alameda Click Before You Dig large text
- 0052 Predator Inspections0052 Predator Inspections
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- 0022 Grimes winter hiring
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- 0018 IWS Hiring Royal Summer
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