Andrew Nikiforuk writes that Jason Kenney has established his own Ministry of Truth. Kenney calls it the Canadian Energy Centre. Its job is to go after journalists who attack Alberta's oil economy. It began its mission by targeting the Medicine Hat News:
That newspaper’s crime was to publish an opinion piece by Jeremy Appel that lambasted the agency’s motives: “Its entire premise is based on the notion that anyone who opposes oilsands expansion is a liar with ulterior motives.”
Appel called the war room “an expensive joke” and “a grave threat to our right to dissent.”
And so, the CEC immediately swung into action. Grady Semmens, a CEC agent and former Trans Canada PR guy, sent the paper a note saying it wanted to respond to the “comments and inaccuracies” in Appel’s column. (For the record, Semmens describes himself as “a purpose-driven public affairs professional.”)
The subsequent “guest column” makes no mention of any “inaccuracies” but swears the propaganda outfit will be “informative, positive and educational.”
Actually, "the outfit" -- and Kenney -- are following in the footsteps of Bible Bill Aberhart:
Kenney’s government really appears to be drawing its inspiration from the Social Credit party, which ruled Alberta from 1935 to 1971. (Albertans prefer one-party states, just like the Russians and the Chinese.)
In 1935, Bible Bill Aberhart won a landslide election by promoting bizarre economic ideas in an Alberta badly unsettled by the Great Depression. Aberhart, who had his own evangelical radio station, won 56 of the 63 seats in the Alberta legislature by mostly blaming the depression on eastern bankers.
The Bible thumper also accused eastern bankers of conspiring to limit credit for Albertans, the same way Kenney, more than 60 years later, accused environmentalists of conspiring to keep the province’s oil resources in the ground. (Kenney won 63 out of 87 seats in 2019 election on the basis of that claim.)
Just like Kenney, Aberhart didn’t like a critical press because it questioned his lies and challenged his wonky conspiracy theories.
The democratic workings of the press so depressed Aberhart that he declared on his weekly Christian radio show that he was “glad there will be no newspapers in heaven.”
What's old is new again.
Image WND.com
