What the Conservative Majority Means For Mining
May 3, 2011 by Jack Caldwell
As I write, the results are in: the Conservatives are the majority party in the Canadian parliament and the New Democratic Party is the official opposition. The Liberals and the Party of Quebec are trashed. The immediate question is what does this mean for the mining industry?
I suspect this is extraordinary good news for the Canadian mining industry. It seems to me that the Conservatives are good for the economy, and good for the mining industry. We have a rejection of silly attacks on the oil sands mines and attempts to apply extreme liberal philosophies to Canadian mining companies in the international arena.
The Canadian mining industry needs and hopefully now will get unequivocal support to develop the nation’s resources in a responsible manner. With just one Green party representative maybe the voice of the environmentalist will be loud in Parliament in a responsible tone. And the NDP will be a loud and vociferous voice in opposition—and all democratic nations need & deserve a loyal and loud opposition.
No longer will we have the vacillation and posturing of the past five years. Now hopefully we will have strong voices in support of mining and loud opposition, and hence an honest debate and fight—and that is the way the correct approach will emerge. No more papering over reality; now a tearing away of the mist and a clear focus on and making of choices.
Maybe we set aside the distracting fights over Canada imposing on the mining industry demands to go beyond reason and the norms of western justice. Maybe we can implement Canadian norms and ideals in a practical and balanced way.
Yet I suspect we are seeing the future in the victory of Elizabeth May. The Greens will now have one seat in parliament. In a spirit of election night stirring, let me propose that we should seek to turn empty words about sustainable mining into Conservative Green Mining (CGM). I believe in mining; I believe in green mining. I believe we need conservative principles of development to advance mining; I believe we need to mine green to balance our needs for energy & resources with our need to preserve & protect the environment. I know this balance is achievable and is profitable. Now let us have an intense debate on this proposition of mine in the best traditions of a majority government and a loyal powerful opposition. With the lone voice of a clear conscience.
Thus I conclude that Canada has experienced a major democratic victory today that has resulted in a balance of voices & ideas that should be espoused and advanced by the mining industry. We need our 308 MPs to work together to get the timber, water, metals, and oil that make life good and enable us to raise our children and grandchildren in hope and success.
Support your local MP; support the democratic system; support mining; and let us seek ways to mine so that we can be the nation of green mining.
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I agree with your spirit of practical compromise – here’s to proportional representation!!
Now that the NDP are official opposition, largely from Quebec we’ll be subjected to the following demands; we must stop all oil sand development; we must stop all northern BC open pit development; we must fully fund the access road to the Stornaway diamond mining project in northern Quebec.
A test case could be the Prosperity mine owned by Taseko. This project was cowardly denied federal permits, as the minister of denials resigned quickly afterwards. Provincial permits had been issued.