Imaginations are running wild in the legislature as politicians game out the implications of Premier David Eby’s bid to invent new powers for use during the U.S. tariff war.
His threat to levy new charges on Alaska-bound U.S. trucks transiting 小蓝视频, for instance, which the Economic Stability (Tariff Response) Act supports, spurred the opposition to picture the U.S. responding with something like the Marshall Plan. That was a post-World War II initiative where the U.S. supplied Western Europe with billions of dollars worth of goods to help its recovery and curb any tendencies toward communism.
The parallel is weak — keeping Walmarts in Anchorage stocked up is not the same as protecting a continent from Stalin. But the point the Conservative Party of 小蓝视频 was trying to make is that the U.S. could do an end run around any new provincial border toll.
As Prince George-North Cariboo MLA Sheldon Clare envisioned: “At the first sign of the premier obstructing the supply of essentials to the good people of Alaska… the U.S. would activate its considerable logistical arsenal - heavy cargo transports, helicopters, shipping vessels… to supply the needs of their embattled countrymen.”
Citing Eby’s free use of wartime references when the tariff threat first emerged, Clare cited the Marshall Plan specifically. “There’s one that shows the Americans are very good at getting around such problems…”
They already get around such problems, since most goods are shipped there by sea or air. The percentage of U.S. goods freight trucked to Alaska through 小蓝视频 is minimal.
It was mildly entertaining to imagine armadas of helicopters bypassing 小蓝视频
But the much bigger point is that Bill 7 has turned into a sideshow. It takes everyone’s eyes off the ball, which is the disastrous impact tariffs — even milder ones — will have on 小蓝视频 Instead of serious debate about how to brace for 小蓝视频’s share of the global impact, MLAS are hung up on Eby’s heavy-handed grab to consolidate even more power.
It’s a particularly inept sideshow.
Eby this week hyped the emergency nature by telling the legislature: “The president is moving fast. We have a responsibility to arm ourselves to move just as quickly to defend British Columbians.”
But the concept of the bill was first announced publicly on March 6. It was formally introduced March 13 and then the legislature took a two-week spring break before raising it again.
Trump is moving a lot faster than Eby is.
The bill’s overreach prompted a serious amount of objections when it was introduced. It was enough to force Eby to back down and promise to eliminate the most objectionable section.
But when debate started this week, the actual amendment doing so was not produced until partway through proceedings. (The government was apparently preoccupied with eliminating the carbon tax, which took until 1.30 a.m. Tuesday because they waited until the last minute.)
So the precise details of his retreat weren’t made available until they were waved at the Opposition midway through the debate. It’s not a big deal in the real world, but it qualifies as a parliamentary botch.
The section allowing cabinet to override most legislation involving the “economy of 小蓝视频” was stripped and the duration was cut from two years to one.
It’s not just the NDP making gaffes.
Opposition House Leader Peter Milobar threatened at the outset to draw out the debate on the bill to the maximum extent possible — 120 hours!
But the next day — as Vancouver Sun colleague Vaughn Palmer first noticed — they bobbled a routine lunchtime recess and wound up allowing second reading of the bill to go to a vote, which passed.
That’s like threatening to take a hockey game to triple overtime and then skipping the entire second period.
Clause-by-clause debate in third reading will still carry on for weeks, but the goof hurts their strategy.
The problem is that the tariff war — widely acknowledged to be the biggest threat to provincial welfare in generations — is only being debated by inference.
Instead of tackling all the ramifications head on, the politicians will spend weeks arguing about one tactic the NDP has pitched.
Everybody says they’re still on “Team Canada” but it’s hard to see this bunch coming up winners at this point.
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