Sensible proposals for a national energy strategy are surfacing in the provincial capitals, in the business community, even in the Senate this summer. The nation clearly wants to move ahead, with or without its hidebound prime minister.

The first promising signal came from the Canadian Council of Chief Executives in mid-July. The country’s business leaders called for a pan-Canadian energy strategy, “which has to be undertaken with full recognition of the environmental consequences of energy development and use.”

Its 12-page blueprint stopped short of advocating a carbon tax, but said a key principle of any plan has to be “a clear, nationally consistent carbon price across the economy.” That would require either a tax on fossil fuels or a cap on greenhouse gas emissions.

Tellingly, the corporate executives addressed their recommendations to the premiers, not Ottawa. “We believe that provincial and territorial governments should take the lead in bringing more coherence to climate policy across the country.”

The second encouraging sign comes from the Senate. An all-party committee, which has spent three years looking at Canada’s energy sector, issued its unanimous final report. It urged policy-makers to wake up to the “new world order” that requires clean alternatives to traditional fuels.

The Conservative-dominated committee, chaired by Tory lawyer David Angus of Montreal, stressed the importance of diversifying Canada’s sources of energy, calling for increased investment in hydro, wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and marine energy.

One of the groups that testified was Tides Canada, demonized by the federal government as part of a cabal of radical environmentalists bent on stopping resource development, regardless of the cost. “We heard they were terrible people,” Angus said. “We found them to be perfectly reasonable — and they’re doing very good things in the energy field.”

The third positive development was a working dinner Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty held with Alberta Premier Alison Redford last Wednesday. The two had sparred earlier in the year; McGuinty complaining that the rapid growth of the western oil and gas sector was driving up the value of the dollar and adding to the woes of Ontario’s manufacturing sector.

This time, the tone was cordial. “We have found a lot of common ground,” McGuinty said after the two-hour meeting. “We are determined to ensure that Ontarians understand that they have a vested interested in the continuing growth and prosperity of Alberta just as Albertans have a vested interested in the continuing growth and prosperity of Ontarians.”

Constructive leadership from Stephen Harper would be an asset. But in its absence, Canadians are finding ways to work around him.

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