Commentary
Political rhetoric is so soporific it’s often hard to focus on its weirdness. As when Prime Minister Mark Carney approves more projects for Major Projects Office (MPO) approval, “to grow our economy stronger than ever before – with major investments, faster approvals, and a clear signal to workers and industry… We are building sustainably, in partnership with Indigenous Peoples, and we are building Canadian.” Zzzzz… um… what? If he just approved them, what’s for the Major Projects Office to approve?
In days of yore, ye sumer of 2025, with “elbows up” to build one economy coast-to-coast, you might have supposed the MPO would focus on removing obstacles to enterprise, from excessive red tape to interprovincial trade barriers. The latter, a long-standing irritant where provincial politicians and bureaucrats praise free trade then defend protectionist fiefdoms using mercantilist logic obsolete in the 18th century to build the dynamic economy of the 21st, especially annoy me because in 2010 I coauthored the inaugural Macdonald-Laurier Institute paper “Citizen of One” urging a federal “Economic Freedom Commission” with the power and resources to initiate legal action against these petty, impoverishing, divisive measures, not just go “Isn’t it awful?” or don a jersey….