Gondek vs. Kenney: Competing visions of Alberta's energy future

This column is an opinion by political scientists Melanee Thomas and Lori Thorlakson. For more information about CBC's Opinion section, please see the FAQ.

In her recent editorial board meeting with CBC News, Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek conceded that energy transition "sometimes comes with a lot of pain and angst."

It also comes with a lot of politics in oil-rich Alberta. 

Gondek offers one vision for Alberta's energy future. Jason Kenney and the United Conservative Party (UCP) offer a competing view. 

Gondek's sights are set on decarbonizing Calgary's economy, touting the city's new clean energy tech accelerator aimed at helping bring big oil and gas companies together with researchers, entrepreneurs and academics working to decarbonize the industry. 

Gondek ruffled some feathers before she even became mayor for saying that Calgary needed to "move past" a focus on fossil fuels as the only form of energy production.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, on the other hand, is intent on getting Alberta's economy cooking with oil and gas again. Kenney's rather retro vision champions fossil fuels and their potential economic prosperity.

As an oil and gas booster, Kenney has vowed  to "vigorously defend the economic interests of Alberta, including the right to develop our own natural resources," in response to the federal government's formal announcement last November to cap oil and gas emissions.

What are we to make of politicians with such diametrically opposed views? Our research published this year and last suggests more Albertans support Gondek's vision of an energy transition than Kenney's vision of more of the same. 

And Gondek has some powerful new allies that have traditionally had Kenney's back.

The new mayor may have raised some hackles – including Premier Kenney's – when her first order of business was to declare a climate emergency in the oil and gas capital of Canada.

But not unlike the Alberta NDP following the 2015 provincial election, Gondek cleverly aligns her messaging about energy transition with the big oil companies headquartered in Calgary.

Last summer, the biggest players in Alberta's oil sands – Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus Energy, Imperial Oil, MEG Energy and Suncor Energy – pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their operations to net-zero by 2050. 

Gondek consistently echoes big oil's Pathways to Net Zero. Everything she's saying has already been said by industry.