Full-time, well-paying jobs remain the Trump card in politics

The most unlikely of presidents knows why pipelines like Keystone XL matter

It was the four-letter word that Calgary has been waiting to hear for such a long time.

Jobs. Three times U.S. President Donald Trump used that word in announcing that Calgary-based TransCanada’s long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline was being pulled from the environmental trash can that’s been sitting out in the political wilderness and put firmly back into play.

He said the project, which will move Alberta crude from the oilsands to refineries in the Gulf, would mean “lots of jobs,” “28,000 jobs” and “great construction jobs,” all within the space of a mere 30 seconds.

Yet the repetition and showmanship was far from annoying.

No, on the contrary, in a city where the number of people out of work is a scandal, he could have repeated it until his bizarre hair either fell out or fell off, and we still wouldn’t have objected in the least.

But strangely, perhaps there were a few words we didn’t hear spoken at all in the Oval Office on Tuesday. Nope, not a single mention of a carbon tax or social license was uttered. Nor was there any shout out to Alberta Premier Rachel Notley for her leadership on climate change policy, unlike Trump’s predecessor, who was abundant in his praise — that’s after he kicked this very same pipeline far out of touch, of course.

In one of those odd twists of fate, our own prime minister, along with his cabinet, was in our city when the pipeline news was announced. He welcomed it, of course — how could he do otherwise if he was to escape a lynching on 5th Avenue — but it must have been more than a little galling to have his well-rehearsed Calgary moment upstaged by such a crass showman as Trump.

Notley, too, could hardly be dismissive of such a welcome development, even though she’d been less than enthusiastic about the whole project when back in opposition a few years ago. But jobs, or rather the desperate need of them, can force the removal of blinders from any politician who hopes to some day get re-elected.

Still, describing her as delighted and fulsome in her praise would be stretching things. The premier did call it a “good first step,” but then publicly fretted about possible rehashed terms that Trump is insisting upon.

Yes, there will be hurdles to overcome, naturally. The Donald will demand a contract renegotiation — the man would likely renegotiate the sun’s passage if he could — and there’s blather of having to use U.S. steel for the pipe and such like.

But those are business decisions and ones that TransCanada is more than capable of engaging upon.

Even facing off with Trump is child’s play compared to the shifting moral sands of trying to explain yourself and gain approval from the environmental lobby; the former will just want your eyes, the latter requires your very soul.

Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr understands. He was easily the most enthused of the various visiting politicians.

“This is a very good moment. This decision will result in many, many jobs for Albertans,” he said.

Still, there are some folk who don’t care about jobs. Immediately after the news came out, some lobby group spokesman was waxing lyrical about how this would destroy the oceans and the very air we breathe for generations to come.

Well, not that long ago, we were warned about the depleting ozone layer, the effects of lead, deadly acid rain and a host of other planetary killers.

Frankly, these people underestimate our species’ inventiveness. We’ll halt global warming and we won’t have to return to an agricultural state in the process.

In the meantime, things are looking up in our city and no amount of fear mongering can alter that.

You see, Donald Trump might be crass, rude, bellicose and bombastic.

He is undoubtedly the most unlikely of presidents.

But he understands one thing: people need good, full-time, wellpaid jobs. Deliver them and you get re-elected.