EDMONTON – Fresh off his visit to Calgary to to support his candidate for the Liberal by-election, Justin Trudeau made his way to Edmonton for a rally at the Citadel theatre, attended by hundreds.
The visit comes on the heels of what some may call a timely show of support by Trudeau for a deal with direct implications to Alberta.
In an opinion piece that ran in several newspapers across Canada on Tuesday, including the National Post and Calgary Herald, the federal Liberal leadership candidate said allowing Chinese owned oil company CNOOC Ltd. to buy Calgary-based oil and gas producer Nexen Inc. for $15 billion dollars is good for Canada. On Tuesday in Alberta, the Liberal leadership contender reinforced that position.
“We need to trade with the world,” he said, adding that it would boost jobs and increase the standard of living for Canadians.
But some say there may be more to it than that.
“It was not a coincidence that he wrote that op-ed just before speaking in Calgary,” explained political scientist Duane Bratt of Mount Royal University.
“Is is based on policy? Or is it based on a political calculation about getting in the middle of the NDP and Conservatives?”
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Tom Flanagan, a political science professor at the University of Calgary and a former adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, believes: “(Trudeau) wants to develop a reputation for actually having something to say on real issues rather than just being an attractive personality. He’ll probably be announcing stands on other issues as well; it’s a fairly common tactic for leadership contestants to do that.”
Flanagan said the position expressed by Trudeau is not controversial and is consistent with the Liberal party’s centrist views.
“The Liberals have this long history of promoting trade with China,” he said. “I remember Jean Chretien’s trade missions to China; he took a bus full of corporate executives. (Building economic relations with China) has actually been a Liberal policy for quite a while.”
While Justin Trudeau may be in support of the Nexen deal, he has openly said he is against the Northern Gateway pipeline, which would transport bitumen from Alberta to China.
“Yes trade is important,” Trudeau insisted, “but the Northern Gateway pipeline is the wrong pipeline in the wrong place.”
As for the Nexen deal, he maintains that his position is not an attempt to just win over Albertans.
“My entire campaign has been about bringing people together, but not pitting region against region; and about being a strong representative, and a voice that says the same thing as I’ll say in Chicoutimi as we say in downtown Calgary, as I’ll say in Toronto, as I’ll say in B.C.”
With files from Jenna Bridges, and Derek Abma, Global News
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