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Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy in Canada

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Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy in Canada ALBERTA OIL AND THE DECLINE OF DEMOCRACY IN CANADA edited by MEENAL SHRIVASTAVA & LORNA STEFANICK Copyright © 2015 Meenal Shrivastava and Lorna Stefanick Published by AU Press, Athabasca University 1200, 10011 – 109 Street, Edmonton, AB T5J 3S8 ISBN 978-1-77199-029-5 (print) 978-1-77199-030-1 (PDF) 978-1-77199-032-5 (epub) doi: 10.15215/aupress/9781771990295.01 Cover design by Natalie Olsen, kisscutdesign.com. Interior design by Sergiy Kozakov. Printed and bound in Canada by Marquis Book Printers. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Alberta oil and the decline of democracy in Canada / edited by Meenal Shrivastava and Lorna Stefanick. Includes bibliographical references and index. Issued in print and electronic formats. 1. Petroleum industry and trade—Political aspects—Alberta. 2. Petroleum industry and trade—Social aspects—Alberta. 3. Petroleum industry and trade—Government policy—Alberta. 4. Democracy—Alberta. I. Shrivastava, Meenal, 1971-, author, editor II. Stefanick, Lorna, 1961-, author, editor HD9574.C23A54 2015 338.2'7282097123 C2015-904346-8 C2015-904347-6 We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada. Assistance provided by the Government of Alberta, Alberta Multimedia Development Fund. This publication is licensed under a Creative Commons License, Attribution– Noncommercial–NoDerivative Works 4.0 International: see www.creativecommons. org. The text may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that credit is given to the original author. To obtain permission for uses beyond those outlined in the Creative Commons license, please contact AU Press, Athabasca University, at [email protected]. The illustrations that open each part are reproduced courtesy of the artist, Sylvie Roussel–Janssens, www.lsclight.com. On page 29, Caribou. 2010. 10” x 10” polyester fabric, photocopy on acetate and silver ink. Courtesy of the artist; on page 169, Bird and Helicopter. 2010. 10” x 10” polyester fabric, photocopy on acetate and silver ink; and on page 293, Salamander. 2010. 10” x 10” polyester fabric, photocopy on acetate and silver ink. Contents Acknowledgements vii Introduction • Framing the Debate on Democracy and Governance in an Oil-Exporting Economy 3 Meenal Shrivastava and Lorna Stefanick PART ONE • THE CONTEXT OF DEMOCRACY IN AN OIL ECONOMY 1 Liberal Democracy in Oil-Exporting Countries: A View from the Perspective of Staples Theory 31 Meenal Shrivastava 2 Petroleum, Politics, and the Limits of Left Progressivism in Alberta 69 Trevor W. Harrison 3 Petro-politics in Alberta and Canada: A New Spatiality of Political Contestation? 89 Peter (Jay) Smith 4 Alberta’s Energy Paradigm: Prosperity, Security, and the Environment 113 Lorna Stefanick 5 The Political Economy of Oil and Democracy in Venezuela and Alberta 139 Paul Kellogg PART TWO • RIGHTS CLAIMS IN AN OIL ECONOMY 6 Petroleum, Patriarchy, and Power: Women’s Equality in Canada and Iran 171 Joy Fraser, Manijeh Mannani, and Lorna Stefanick 7 Development at What Cost? First Nations, Ecological Integrity, and Democracy 195 Gabrielle Slowey and Lorna Stefanick 8 Worker Safety in Alberta: Trading Health for Profit 225 Bob Barnetson 9 Exporting Oil, Importing Labour, and Weakening Democracy: The Use of Foreign Migrant Workers in Alberta 249 Jason Foster and Bob Barnetson 10 Gendering Energy Extraction in Fort McMurray 275 Sara Dorow PART THREE • GOVERNANCE, IDENTITY, AND CITIZENSHIP IN AN OIL ECONOMY 11 A Window on Power and Influence in Alberta Politics 295 Ricardo Acuña 12 The Paradox of Plenty: Ending Homelessness in Alberta 313 Joshua Evans 13 “The Sharpest Knives in the Drawer”: Visual Culture at the Intersection of Oil and State 333 Karen Wall 14 Blurring the Boundaries of Private, Partisan, and Public Interests: Accountability in an Oil Economy 363 Lorna Stefanick Conclusion • Of Democracy and Its Deficits: Surviving Neoliberalism in Oil-Exporting Countries 391 Meenal Shrivastava List of Contributors 411 Index 417 Acknowledgements In the spring of 2012, we had the opportunity to teach an intensive six-week course on oil and democracy. Offered through the University of Alberta’s Community Service-Learning program, Class lectures were supplemented by a series of lectures sponsored by the university’s Parkland Institute, which conducts research into contemporary social and political issues from the stand- point of political economy. We had recently co-authored an article on the topic of oil’s potential to undermine democracy, which appeared in the May 2012 issue of New Global Studies, and we were aware of a number of our colleagues at Athabasca University whose research looked at various aspects of democ- racy in Alberta, in Canada, and internationally. Given that the following year would mark the sixtieth anniversary of the publication of C. B. Macpherson’s seminal work Democracy in Alberta, the time seemed ripe for a collaborative, in- depth, interdisciplinary exploration of liberal democracy in Canada, focusing on Alberta as the epicentre of an expanding oil-based economy. By the time this book was completed, in the spring of 2015, the world market for oil was markedly different, with the production of oil in the United States at all-time highs and the volatility of oil prices threatening the economies of oil-export- ing countries. In addition, concerns about the state of democracy had become widespread. This volume represents an attempt to examine some of issues aris- ing in this complex milieu. We thank Sara Dorow, of the University of Alberta’s Department of Sociology, for inviting us to teach this class, and our teaching assistant, Matt Dow, for helping us to make it a success. Perhaps above all, we are indebted to the students them- selves, who tackled a very demanding course with interest and energy and allowed us to share our ideas and to refine them in the process. Our thanks, then, to Karissa VanderLeek, Ashley Thompson, Peter Selcuk, Heather Sawchyn, Lynsey Race, Maria Montenegro, Doug Lemermeyer, Julianne Layton, Garret Johnston, Tim Isberg, Keltie Hutchison, Liam Hudson, Akimi Fukaura, Mireille Chamberland, Jonathon Cartmell, Olivia Bako, Anneka Bakker, and Malaika Aleba. If the future vii doi:10.15215/aupress/9781771990295.01 of our society is in the hands of thoughtful, diligent, and considerate people such as you, we have much reason to be hopeful about the prospects for democracy, despite its many current deficits, as detailed in this book. We are also grateful to the Parkland Institute for its work in organizing the Speaker’s Series that accompanied the class and, in particular, its executive director, Ricardo Acuña, and director, Trevor Harrison. Our special thanks go to Lorraine Woollard, Angie Meyer, and Auralia Brooke, along with the many Athabasca University administrators who assisted us in figuring out how to persuade two university bureaucracies to work together in order to create a learning experience that students would remember with the same enthusiasm that they originally brought to the class. With remarkable patience and good humour, our contributors met demand- ing deadlines and willingly engaged in a seemingly endless exchange of ideas, drafts, and revisions, for which we are profoundly thankful. It was a pleasure to work with such a stimulating and cooperative group of collaborators. We are grateful to Megan Hall, Connor Houlihan, and Kathy Killoh, at Athabasca University Press, for their support of this project. We especially appreciate the insights provided by the two anonymous reviewers for the press, as well as those offered by Alvin Finkel, our colleague and former chair of the AU Press Editorial Committee, and by Pamela MacFarland Holway, senior editor at the press, who read and reread chapters as they evolved. Our copy editor, Joyce Hildebrand, deserves special thanks for her close attention to the text and for catching errors and omissions. Their comments and suggestions have greatly strengthened this volume. None of this would have been possible without the help and support of our spouses, Sanjiv Shrivastava and Jim Race, who accepted our preoccupa- tion with the project as we grappled with the many demands of producing this book. Their unconditional support, intellectual companionship, and love have been the bulwarks against which we have tested and retested many incoherent ideas, sought solace from major frustrations, and celebrated minor victories. Our many dog-walking adventures with Appu, Gauri, and Cleo provided much- needed breaks, as well as cherished memories. Finally, a special thanks to our departed mothers, Surekha Sinha and Millie Stefanick, who died a few days apart in 2010. Living on different continents, they were connected not only by their daughters but also by a world view that they shared across time and space. Even though they never met, these two remarkable women continue to remind us of the ways in which human experience unites us. viii Acknowledgements doi:10.15215/aupress/9781771990295.01 Introduction Framing the Debate on Democracy and Governance in an Oil-Exporting Economy Meenal Shrivastava and Lorna Stefanick In 1953, C. B. Macpherson’s Democracy in Alberta: The Theory and Practice of a Quasi- Party System appeared. Much has changed in the sixty years since the publication of this influential work, which explores the nature of democracy in a jurisdic- tion dominated by one class of producers—the farmers. Today, more than ever before, Alberta can be seen as a one-industry economy, with agricultural interests having been replaced by those of the oil industry. Since Macpherson’s analysis, Alberta’s population has also grown dramatically as a result of both national and international migration. Calgary and Edmonton have become major urban centres, and economic and political power has incrementally and steadily shifted from central Canada to western Canada. What did not change until 5 May 2015—when the New Democratic Party (NDP) formed a majority government in Alberta, decisively ending nearly forty-four years of rule by the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party—was the dominance of one party in the provincial political system and the resultant concern for the health of democ- racy in this province.
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