On the surface, it does seem odd but the warm welcome that Premier John Horgan received at the B.C. Natural Resources Forum this week in Prince George isn't that surprising.
In a room with hundreds of industry leaders and other folks connected to the resource development sector, Horgan probably wouldn't have needed to take off his shoes to count the number of people there who voted for NDP candidates in last spring's election.
Yet there he was, the NDP premier, trying to put truth to the old political adage that once in power you represent everyone, not just the people who voted for you.
In Horgan's case, that's not as hard as it looks. Behind the powerful women and men in the audience are thousands of female and male workers, many of them members of trade unions, who supported NDP candidates and are happy Christy Clark and the B.C. Liberals are no longer calling the shots.
Seen in that light, it becomes much easier for Horgan to say and do all the right things to benefit resource development across B.C. He wants to do everything in his power to benefit working class British Columbians, not just to get votes but because the core of his political beliefs rests on those people, those jobs and the families that count on that income. Of course Horgan wants Canfor and Rio Tinto and their suppliers and their contractors and their customers to make money because when they make money, they do it by paying good wages to people to do the job.
In reverse, industry leaders should expect their premier, regardless of her or his politics, to be working towards their continued success. Companies large and small not only employ people, they pay taxes.
There's plenty for resource development companies and the NDP to fight about, from bureaucratic red tape and oversight to environmental regulations, First Nations input and public engagement, but those issues are manageable, particularly if both sides put the politics and personalities aside. In the end, they are both in the business of working together towards a healthy economy with high employment, where companies are bringing in handsome profits and the government high tax revenues.
That's not to say that neither politics nor practicality were both at work during Wednesday's lunch time address by the premier.
Horgan's passionate support of LNG development in B.C., along the pipelines to ship that gas to Vancouver or Prince Rupert for export, gives him the political licence to oppose the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion because B.C. carries the bigger risk of environmental damage from spills but Alberta - both the companies and the provincial government - keep the vast majority of the financial gains. Put another way, if the cost of Horgan's unqualified support of B.C.'s resource sector simply involves sticking it to a Calgary company instead of them, that's a cost worth bearing with a grin.
Looking further than Alberta, there are even more forces at work to bring a provincial NDP government and the resource extraction industries together. The federal government is responsible for international trade. The Justin Trudeau government and the Ottawa bureaucrats are more likely to listen to a united government and industry front coming out of B.C. Getting international deals done that benefit B.C., rather than harm it, is good for both sides.
Meanwhile, the U.S. federal government is talking about protecting their markets from the big bad Canadians and President Donald Trump wants a new North American Free Trade Agreement that will make America great again. For outside threats like that, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Industry bosses may despise the politics of both Horgan and Trudeau, while Horgan and Trudeau may clash over Trans Mountain, but they all need to stand together against Trump if it comes to that.
Those commons interests are worth remembering. The resource development sector wants to continue to do business and make money while Horgan wants to show that he can get things done as good or better than the Liberals and if that involves taking a few jabs at his political opponents from his podium as premier, well, that's politics. The Liberals had no problem dishing it out when they were in power - "The NDP is like the guy that shows up on moving day, sits on your sofa, eats all your pizza and drinks all of your beer and then says that was a lot of work," Clarke said in Prince George just 10 months ago - so they should be able to take the shots now that the roles have reversed.
If Horgan can dispel that Liberal narrative about the "no to industry, no to development" NDP, he still likely won't get the votes of the idecision makers but he will earn their respect. That's enough of a common ground to work together towards goals that benefit everyone.
