Unembarrassed to make a head-spinning 180-degree policy reversal, they are responding to economic and political realities favouring growth

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Prime Minister Mark Carney’s sudden enthusiasm for natural resources, which was darkest heresy to Liberals until just this winter, has been longstanding Conservative policy.

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As minister of natural resources from 2011-14, I talked endlessly about the compelling economic and strategic need to develop Canada’s vast oil and gas reserves. To accomplish that nation-building task and fulfill prime minister Stephen Harper’s vision of Canada as an “energy superpower” — and does that term sound familiar? — we needed to accelerate regulatory approvals. We therefore introduced legislation based on the principle of “one project, one review” within a two-year time limit.

My vigorous support for the legislation got me labeled a “climate-denier” who was “gutting” the regulatory system. The Liberals, NDP and Greens never stopped that harangue, while doing everything they could to block energy projects. And they had the active encouragement of most legacy media, in particular the CBC, CTV and the Toronto Star, as well as academia and environmental activists.

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