Monday's Election A Choice Between Liberal Control Or Canada's Prosperity

By Geoff Russ, Special to the National Citizens Coalition and the Energy Affordability Now campaign

Every man and woman across Canada who votes against the Liberal government this Monday will have their own reasons for doing so. Pushing back against the Liberal obsession with control ought to be one.

Under the lofty veil of rhetoric calling for climate justice and “clean” growth can be found the singular goal of centralizing power in Ottawa. To do that, the Liberals have to crush the autonomy of provincial legislatures, and no more so than in the provinces that rely on natural resources.

Over the past decade, the Liberal government’s policy towards the petroleum sector has been to monopolize authority over it. Constitutionally, energy nominally falls under the provincial purview. Under Justin Trudeau, they used regulatory punishment to drive out private investors and make Ottawa the ultimate arbiter over projects such as new pipelines to diversify the Canadian economy.

All of this was deliberate, and has been disastrously effective.

Using this methodology, the federalization of the energy landscape has become the norm over the past decade. Northern Gateway, Energy East, and more were all well-conceived, viable projects that were not crushed in the court of public opinion, but asphyxiated by new rules, regulations, and wanton political interference.

Look no further than Bill C-69, the “No More Pipelines Act,” which helped to institutionalize federal power over the growth of petroleum. By passing the law, the Liberal government granted itself the power to dictate the life or death of major infrastructure projects via the Impact Assessment Agency, which has been very good at paralysing the ambitions of the private sector.

In 2023, a report found that almost every single project subject to review under Bill C-69 was bogged down in the early-stage assessments that overrun the legislated 180-day limit. That same year, Canada’s Supreme Court ruled that key sections of Bill C-69 were unconstitutional due to its interference in provincial affairs.

As Ottawa’s most slavish devotees to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, you might have expected the Liberals to graciously recalibrate and adjust. Instead, the Liberals have merely amended the bill to retain their ability to step in when a project could adversely affect areas under federal jurisdiction.

What constitutes adverse in their view is anyone’s guess, but expect it to include anything that goes against the Liberal agenda of destroying the petroleum sector in the name of activist climate goals.

This is one of the most fundamental questions of this election: do Canadians want to submit to the further creep of federal power, or let provinces take their own steps for the greater good of their residents? A stronger Canada is one where all provinces thrive and stand on their own two feet, not having them tripped up by radical climate activists turned politicians like Steven Guilbeault, a man whose loathing of the energy sector is the worst kept secret in Ottawa. Guilbeault’s continued presence in Mark Carney’s cabinet is the only clue you need to understand where this government will go if re-elected.

You can only justify a command economy in a country if the lives of its citizens continue to materially improve. Since taking the reins of power in 2015, this Liberal government has gleefully overseen a drastic decline in the UN Human Development Index (HDI). Canadians have palpably felt the disappearance of affordability, competitive salaries, and the decline of our middle-class.

The resource industry, especially petroleum, is one of the biggest drivers of economic growth, most reliable sources of job creation, and reinforces Canada’s comparative advantage on the world stage.

Dating back to the creation of the National Energy Program (NEP) in the 1970s, a pillar of Liberal economic policy has been to take it out of the hands of those who nurture, grow, and work within it, and harness it for their own ends. In 2025, that means trying to snuff it out to appease the whims of international climate bureaucrats who have never visited Canada, and certainly do not care about the livelihoods of its citizens.

In short, they are willing to hurt Canada’s economy, and in turn, hurt you and your families.

There will be continuity of these dreadful past 10 years, in which the Liberal drive to increase their power resulted in a lost decade of economic hopelessness and stagnation. Canadians deserve change, and that means a government that is willing to pull back and let the provinces thrive of their own accord.

Geoff Russ is a policy manager in the resource sector and contributor to several national publications across Canada, the United States, and Australia. Read his work in the National Post, the Spectator Australia, and Modern Age.

There's no solving for Canada's cost of living crisis -- or tariff crisis -- without growing Canada's resource economy, and restrictions on our energy sector have proven themselves to be just another tax on working families. Help us advocate on your behalf, and on behalf of our Great Canadian energy producers and innovators.

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