The Alberta treasury was "looted" out of $100 billion by predecessor Pierre Trudeau's Liberal government "so Mr. Trudeau could artificially subsidize consumers in Quebec and Ontario," Mulroney told CTV prior to a speech in Ottawa Wednesday evening.
He said the National Energy Program, or NEP, which among other things set an artificially low oil price in Canada and imposed new taxes on the industry starting in 1980, was a "great injustice to the people of Alberta and to Western Canada."
Mulroney, who dismantled the NEP after taking power in 1984, said he doesn't know if Mulcair's criticism of the oilsands industry — the NDP leader has blamed it for driving the dollar artificially high at the expense of manufacturing jobs in Ontario and Quebec — will hurt national unity.
But he said Mulcair erred in taking such a stand at a time when Alberta is being led by Premier Alison Redford, who he described in the interview as Alberta's strongest national leader since Peter Lougheed.
"Alberta is now playing the leadership role that it should in the federation, and I think with Premier Redford a very enlightened role, a promising role," Mulroney said, citing the recent appointment of former Tory MP Lee Richardson as her principal secretary.
"Now with Lee Richardson and the others out there, Alberta is going to assume the mantle of leadership in the federation that it enjoyed when Peter Lougheed was premier.
"And I think that for any political leader to deliberately sow divisions or suggest that one part of the country is not prospering because another is, is wrong.
"There's a way to sit down with Alberta, if you have a problem with the development — the oilsands, the tarsands development or what have you in Alberta — there's a way to sit down and see if you can't accommodate that, the environmental concerns, on a national level.
"You don't try and say, 'You know, we've got to . . . stop that progress to satisfy some other need.'"
Mulroney, who said he remains "very proud" of his 2005 designation as Canada's greenest prime minister, said he isn't sufficiently knowledgeable and therefore wouldn't comment on major changes to federal environmental legislation in the Harper government's massive budget implementation bill.
Those changes, and in particular amendments to the federal Fisheries Act, have been denounced by former Mulroney-era ministers John Fraser and Tom Siddon, both ex-fisheries ministers.
Mulroney said a key issue among the Canadian middle class is that the "pristine" Canadian environment be protected for future generations.
"I think the government and the opposition should take a good look at their obligations to leave our environment, which is pretty magnificent, even more splendid than it is now."
Mulroney also urged Canada to accept European Union demands in Canada-EU trade talks to expand patent protection for brand-name drugs, saying such a move will boost innovation in Canada.
And he praised Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government for gradually increasing the eligibility age for Old Age Security payments from 65 to 67.
Harper is "absolutely right" and has been "more far-sighted than I was," Mulroney said.
Original Article
Source: canada.com
Author: Peter O'Neil
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