42: Canadian National Unity and Alberta's Grievances Guest: Conrad Black Conrad Black reports on a debate between former Prime Ministers Jean Chrétien and Stephen Harper regarding Canadian national unity, focusing on Alberta's profound discontent. Resource-ri

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 1 November 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

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Summary

Canadian National Unity and Alberta's Grievances Guest: Conrad Black Conrad Black reports on a debate between former Prime Ministers Jean Chrétien and Stephen Harper regarding Canadian national unity, focusing on Alberta's profound discontent. Resource-rich Alberta feels unfairly treated and prevented from profiting from oil and gas development due to federal opposition to pipeline construction. Harper warned of serious national problems if the new government, led by Prime Minister Mark Carney, remains inflexible on energy policy. Black notes that while Canada's political institutions are durable, flexibility is required to maintain unity and coherence across diverse regions.

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0:00.0	This is CBSI on the world. I'm John Batchel. I welcome Conrad Black, my good colleague, distinguished
0:10.3	biographer, writing for the National Post, his column about an event that took place at the Royal York
0:16.1	Hotel, Conrad tells me, it's very large, downtown Toronto. Between two statesmen of Canada, Jean Crotienne, former premier and Stephen Harper former
0:26.7	premier, turning on the subject of national unity, wonderful, inspirational, but at the same
0:32.0	time in your column, Conrad, you mentioned Alberta twice, once because former Prime Minister Kretian
0:40.4	speaks of it, he speaks happily of it, and another because Stephen Harper is from Alberta.
0:46.4	To acquaint the audience that is not following the story, Alberta is resource rich, and the question
0:53.1	has been raised by Alberta politicians and players
0:57.5	that the resources are not being adequately treated by the central government in Ottawa.
1:03.0	There's also talk about how we send more money than we get help. But in general, there's reason to believe that Alberta is unhappy. What do the former
1:14.3	prime ministers make of the unhappiness and do they have a remedy for national unity? Good evening
1:19.0	to you. Good evening. Good evening. If you, John, well, as you say, Jean Crechan, who was the prime
1:25.4	minister from, I think, 1993 to 2003, and Stephen Harper from, I think, 2006 to 2015, one from Quebec, which has had separatist problems, and one from Alberta, which is fractious at the moment because it feels, with some reason, it's being prevented from profiting as much as it should from its oil and gas industry.
1:53.4	There's great demand in the world for it.
1:55.1	But for environmental reasons, the government formerly of Justin Trudeau, and we're waiting to see the
2:02.8	position taken by the new Prime Minister Carney, have been skeptical about building pipelines.
2:08.8	So these are quite key issues, and obviously Kretchenz speaks knowledgeably about Quebec and Stephen Harper about Alberta.
2:20.3	And Stephen Harper did say that if the new government is not reasonably obliging in building pipelines
2:30.3	to permit Alberta and the country generally to profit as they should from this
2:36.4	great oil and gas industry.
2:39.2	As he put it, there will be serious problems.
2:42.0	He didn't go farther than that.
	...

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