Junket to Germany: Rural MLAs from Alberta fly to Berlin and Essen to ‘learn about energy and climate transition’ 

Presumably the last thing Canada needs right now is another diplomatic incident, so we should all send heartfelt thoughts and prayers to accompany United Conservative Party MLAs Shane Getson and Garth Rowswell on their junket to Germany.

The two rural MLAs from Alberta – pockets no doubt bulging with lapel pins featuring crossed Alberta and German flags, or wild roses – are due to show up today in Berlin, a city that has seen it all and where, therefore, they are unlikely to do much harm. 

They have been plucked from the UCP Caucus in the Legislature in Edmonton, as the government’s press release Friday about their then-imminent departure put it, “to learn about the country’s energy transition plans and how Alberta can be a strong partner.”

In other words, to mount a charm offensive and persuade the bemused representatives of Mitteleuropa that they should buy expensive-to-ship but “ethical” LNG from Alberta to replace the cheap Russian gas that used to come to Germany through that pipeline under the Baltic Sea that someone blew up.

They will be accompanied, the release noted, by “U.S. lawmakers, and other members of the Council of State Governments Midwestern Legislative Conference to learn about Germany’s energy and climate transition.”

Well, at least there’s the State Department in Washington to share the pain with Global Affairs Canada should something go terribly wrong with their mission, quoting the press release again, “to promote low-emitting western Canadian LNG and Alberta’s energy capabilities, including hydrogen, carbon capture, utilization and storage, and technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

Messrs. Getson and Rowswell seem an unlikely pair to appeal to those European Green Marxists that Jason Kenney used to complain about, but you never know. The Germans do seem to have a thing about American men in cowboy boots and big hats, so if someone thought to throw a case of old Calgary Stampede belt buckles in with their luggage, they could be off to the chuckwagon races.

On the other hand, I don’t suppose anyone here at home in Wild Rose Country will be persuaded by the government’s effort to rebrand Mr. Getson as practically a Green Marxist himself. “We are grateful for the invitation to learn about the successes and challenges they have had with their energy transition programs so that we can apply those lessons here at home,” the MLA for Lac Ste. Anne-Parkland was quoted saying in the presser. (Emphasis added.)

Well, that should put an end to all that talk about “small modular reactors,” eh? 

Alert readers will recall that Mr. Getson showed up at the convoy blockade the Coutts border crossing in February 2022, and later drove a gravel truck around downtown Edmonton in a related noisy anti-vaccine protest. 

In June 2022, according to Calgary City News, he made a “veiled threat” against Justin Trudeau, suggesting that someone needed to take the prime minister “to the train station,” a line from a popular TV series meaning to kill someone and hide their body. 

At a meeting with a group of business owners complaining about having trouble finding employees in his riding in the fall of 2020, the former construction project boss accused Albertans receiving the Canada Emergency Response Benefit of spending the federal pandemic support on cartoons, recreational drugs and Cheezies, followed by a barely coherent string of abuse directed at Mr. Trudeau.

When Premier Danielle Smith came to power, Mr. Getson was rewarded by being named Parliamentary Secretary for Economic Corridor Development.

As for Mr. Rowswell, he came late, but he came just the same to the UCP Caucus rebellion against former premier Jason Kenney for daring to try half-heartedly to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the spring of 2021. 

The green rebranding effort was applied as well to Mr. Rowswell, MLA for Vermilion-Lloydminster-Wainwright, who was assigned a quote saying, “Germany has been in the vanguard of transitioning to renewable energy sources. This trip is an excellent opportunity to identify cost-effective and scalable renewable technologies that Alberta may take advantage of with respect to developing our own renewable energy sector.”

Huh? After the moratorium on new energy projects here ends, I guess. 

The Alberta pair and their American counterparts will have today to enjoy the fleshpots of Berlin.

Tomorrow, the two Albertans at least (the release is not clear on the activities of the Americans) will move on to the city of Essen, in German’s industrial Ruhr region, for a “meeting at the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Action and Energy.” 

That, in turn, will be followed by two days of “meetings and briefings in Essen” and then a couple of days with no scheduled activities at all before they return to Alberta on Oct. 16. 

For any free time, visiting elected representatives on foreign soil are advised to take the sound advice of former Progressive Conservative Calgary MLA Wayne Cao and stick to visiting museums.