Bronwyn Eyre is a former Saskatchewan Minister of Energy and Resources for four years. She has also held the portfolios of Justice & Attorney General, Education, Advanced Education, SaskPower, SaskEnergy, SaskWater and Status of Women. She resides in Saskatoon.
Mike Meyers, left, and Prime Minister Mark Carney in photo posted on Carney’s X account on March 22, 2025. Oddly enough, that account did not have any photos of Carney showing “elbows up,” but there may have been videos to that end. X/MarkJCarney
“Last week, Mandryk reported that, according to a “source,” a federal “bilateral mechanism” proposal was brought to Cabinet three times, and I responded with a 14-page letter rejecting it.”
It’s now officially a fortnight since Election Day 2025 when, once again, the Lord of Misrule cynically smiled on our country.
Despite Mark Carney’s E-Night victory dance to “Whoa is me” and pundits of all stripes urging unity, because “that’s what Canadians want,” the reality on the ground tells a different story.
We’ve become the land of perpetual Liberal minority governments and neutered Oppositions who are too weak to do anything but dominate Question Period and be vilified by a left-leaning press—not to mention disgruntled provincial Tories bad-mouthing the federal leader.
Consider the numbers. Despite the Liberals and Conservatives each having over 40% of the popular vote (43.3% and 41.7%)—a vote the Conservatives won in the last two elections—and with representation from across the country roughly equal, the Liberals have a 170-seat minority, whereas the Tories are stuck in a 143-seat No Man’s Land.
The other three parties, though all weakened, are in a stronger position than the Conservatives because they can influence government policy.
The NDP, no longer an official party, is down to seven seats and a popular vote tally of only 6.3%. With a formal Liberal-NDP alliance now off the table, according to Carney (both sides now recognizing how disastrous their supply-and-confidence arrangement was), the Liberals are apparently casting about for soft Tories. Elizabeth May, down to one Green seat, is pitching herself as Speaker, although her obvious ideological affinity with the Liberals makes that unlikely.
That leaves—as king maker—the Bloc Quebecois’ Yves-François Blanchet, who also lost seats, down to 23 from 35, with 6.3% of the vote. During the election, when he feared a red surge, he signalled that he might work with the Liberals. Now, he’s changed his tune, saying he will consider it only if the Liberals aren’t too extreme on issues of “language, national security, immigration, and oil.”
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Federal “reset” with strings attached
So that’s why the Lord of Misrule is smiling. How can a country be unified if the ruling alliance denies the development of natural resources in the West? Pierre Poilièvre campaigned on creating an energy corridor to get oil and natural gas to international markets. Carney, on the other hand, said (in French), “Not necessarily pipelines, but possibly pipelines. We’ll see.”
Many green Liberal members—and the party’s political dance partners—will fight pipelines all the way.
Mark Carney’s election night victory speech. X/MarkJCarney
As columnist Lorne Gunter recently wrote, “How many times are Albertans going to hear some Liberal politician promise to advance our energy industry? No Liberal means it. They all either want to take over our oil and gas industry or shut it down.”
To actually opt for pipelines, Carney himself would have to find new “Values” to the ones he espouses in his book of that name, including his outspoken admiration of Greta Thunberg and his founding of the UN-backed Net Zero Alliance. Let’s not forget this guy co-opted Conservative policies merely for the sake of his campaign.
In consistent contrast, Alberta’s Premier Smith has put forward a list of nine demands to the federal government, including scrapping the federal industrial carbon tax, the oil and gas cap, and federal EV regulations.
My prediction: the Liberals and their allies won’t scrap any of them.
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Carney has clearly said that Bill C-69 (despite being ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court) will not be repealed but “amended”—which former environment minister Steven Guilbeault was already hard at work on. The oil and gas cap, the PM says, will remain in place. The carbon tax could be replaced with something “better and more efficient.” Etc., etc.
In the meantime, a lot of federal bait-and-switch bamboozlement lies ahead. Bill C-69, for example, will be repackaged as “streamlining” and “one project-one approval.” There will also be plenty of high level, “constructive discussions” with private oil companies, Indigenous groups, and provincial governments—which will eventually lead nowhere.
That’s why Alberta wants action now.
You can mentally conjure pipelines, LNG facilities, and energy infrastructure—but with federal economy-killing regulations still in place, private investment simply won’t happen. More state-owned enterprises are therefore the only option—which Liberals and their dance partners, let alone taxpayers, don’t want.
Given such unique, made-in-Canada conundrums, therefore, it’s better to distract people with “unity.”
Last week, StarPhoenix columnist Murray Mandryk reported that according to a “source” (my bet: former federal energy minister Jonathan Wilkinson), provincial minister Jim Reiter brought a federal “bilateral mechanism” proposal to Cabinet “three times,” and I responded with a 14-page letter “rejecting the notion.”
In 2023, as Justice Minister, I did write a letter to Wilkinson, on behalf of the Cabinet and government, which outlined the basis of our then-Saskatchewan First approach—namely, that where federal policies, regulations or laws caused economic harm to our province or violated constitutional provincial jurisdiction, we would resist them.
I hope that remains the government’s position. However, according to Mandryk and his Liberal source, “the elevation of Reiter to Finance is seen as a sign of a path to a better relationship [with the feds].”
Careful what you wish for, gentlemen.
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The problem with Liberal “resets” is that they invariably come with Trojan horse strings attached—including, in the case of that “bilateral mechanism,” provincial adherence to net zero by 2035 and the entrenchment of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which requires “free and prior consent” (i.e., veto power) over all major projects.
In Canada, Quebec can be fiercely protective of provincial rights—but Saskatchewan and Alberta are expected to bow down to their federal masters.
Columnist Tasha Kheiriddin recently wrote that while Quebec’s constitutional grievances have traditionally been “cultural, not economic, Alberta’s complaint is financial.” But energy and resources—including agriculture—are cultural for Alberta and Saskatchewan, just as the fisheries are for the Maritimes.
That’s what other Canadians don’t get.
Irony was also lost on Globe and Mail columnist Marsha Lederman (“Dear Alberta: please don’t leave”), who recently wrote that Canada has been there in “good times and bad—with love and money”—then pointed to federal aid following the 2013 Calgary flood and 2024 Jasper forest fires! (Those would be the fires caused, in major part, by the negligent forest management practices of Parks Canada).
Not a word about how Alberta funds equalization or that oil exports make up a quarter of Canadian exports.
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“Artificial country”
Despite that—and barring a genuine federal reset—we’ll likely continue to row our boats against the political current.
Other prime industries are also in trouble. The auto industry is reeling from the Trump tariffs. Shortly after the election, both Stellantis and GM imposed substantial production cutbacks, while other companies are considering moves to the U.S.
China’s punitive tariffs on canola are barely mentioned—and Carney, a noted Sinophile, doesn’t appear to be much bothered about the effects on Western farmers.
Given the key importance of all these industries, we should heed the recent words of Mr. Blanchet: “Canada lacks an identity. It’s an artificial country. This is not meant as an insult…but daily policies in Canada show this. The different regions of this country have different issues and are pulled together to serve mainly Ontario. Quebec identifies as a proud nation and if other provinces did the same, politics in Ottawa would be different.”
Blanchet’s words are impactful, but the press—intimidated by his verbalness and conviction—has brushed over them, focusing instead on the not-so-different proposals of Danielle Smith, who has been vilified as treacherous.
In fact, the proposals of both Blanchet and Smith are key. Unless there are substantial constitutional changes, we may have no choice but to become a loose confederation of regions (recall Brian Mulroney’s Meech Lake proposals or the provincial “autonomy alliance” currently being proposed by Smith and Quebec Premier Legault), with increased power of provinces to deal with their own individual issues.
Think of it as “elbows up” as the provinces go into the corner boards to wrest their rights from the Ottawa hegemons.
Bronwyn Eyre is the former Saskatchewan Minister of Energy and of Justice and Attorney General. She can be reached at Bronwyn.eyre@sasktel.net.
Eyre and Pipeline Online editor Brian Zinchuk will be cohosting the Pipeline Online Podcast at 2 p.m. on Monday, May 12. The guest will be E. Craig Lothian, who has run many oil companies in Saskatchewan over the years. Watch live on X, Facebook or LinkedIn. And if you do watch live, you can comment or ask questions in real time.
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