ABSTRACT
The Trudeau government’s 1980 National Energy Program (nep) was first and foremost a political act intended simultaneously to change the structure of power between Ottawa and the provinces and between Ottawa and the oil industry. Energy policy was a summation of the Canadian body politic, embracing issues of nationalism, regionalism, foreign ownership of the economy, partisan conflict, theories and beliefs about Canada’s resource heritage, bureaucratic growth and state intervention, and the realities of international dependence and Canada-United States relations. The nep and energy politics belie the myth of dull, gray, pragmatic Canadian politics. In energy politics, ideas are central and personalities, egos and reputations are rampant. Energy consumed per unit of output declined on average about 2.5 percent per annum in the 1974–1981 period. Energy sources are first a function of geological and geographical determinants. Oil and gas, hydroelectric, nuclear, coal, and other sources are not distributed evenly or conveniently across Canada.
