Alain Deneault is a Paris-based observer of the world, a member of the International College of Philosophy in Paris and the author of De quoi Total est-elle la somme? (What is Total the sum of?; Rue de l’Echiquier-Ecosociété, Paris/Montreal, 2017) and Mediocracy: the Politics of the Extreme Centre (Between the Lines, 2018).
Deneault has turned his attention to our part of the world. In his “The Irvings, Canada’s robber barons” published in Le Monde Diplomatique, April, 2019, he states that, “The family made their fortune in oil, and moved to timber, transport, building and retail. They control New Brunswick and are moving across the US Northeast. … The list of group businesses seems endless: a naval dockyard, packaging factories, intercity buses, car dealerships, restaurants, an ice hockey team, DIY stores, pharmacies…”
After claiming the Irvings exert huge influence on the Canadian government as well as on New Brunswick and the other Atlantic provinces, he goes on to suggest, “The Irvings are able to exercise similar pressure in the neighbouring US state of Maine, where they also enjoy preferential treatment. With the support of the Canadian authorities, they have managed to overturn a referendum vote to ban clear-cutting, and defeated proposed legislation on the publication of accounts. The group now has its eye on the gold and copper deposits of Bald Mountain, in Aroostook county, and Maine looks set to become ‘Irving’s new colony’.”
This is how we appear to one thoughtful person based outside our province. How do we appear to ourselves—as captured by an industrial complex bent on its own wellbeing or are we favoured by a job- and wealth-creating powerhouse? Is the fact, mentioned by Deneault and known to all who live here, that our Premier is a former Irving Oil executive, a problem or a potential benefit? The view from afar is the former.
Hugh Williams
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