Yahoo Finance William Watson: On oil and gas let’s channel Danish TV
When Europe’s most popular politician — maybe even the world’s most popular politician — takes a principled stand in favour of green, democratic fossil fuels, do you think that could help other politicians — including our own increasingly unpopular prime minister — come to a more nuanced view of balancing carbon control and prosperity?
The popular politician I’m referring to is alas fictional: Denmark’s Birgitte Nyborg, protagonist of Netflix’ political drama, Borgen, whose fourth season was released this spring. You might think it should be called “Nyborg” rather than “Borgen” but Borgen (“the castle”) is the common term for Copenhagen’s Christiansborg Palace, the seat of all three branches of the Danish government.
Borgen’s first three seasons ran from 2010-13 so this time around everyone is a little older, a little heavier and maybe a little wiser — though they’ve all become seriously hooked on social media so maybe wisdom has flown off with the Twitter bird. If you haven’t seen the latest Borgen yet and don’t want to know what happens, stop reading now. Essential plot elements are about to be revealed.
This season Birgitte Nyborg, played compellingly by Sidse Babett Knudsen, is foreign minister. She used to be prime minister but — the perils of proportional representation — she lost that job, was out of politics for a while, got back in, formed a new party and is now part of a new coalition government. Take heart, Boris Johnson, and don’t nuke all your bridges: Even if you don’t survive as prime minister, you could have a second act in some future cabinet.
Whether the new governing coalition will hold together is a preoccupation for Birgitte and her prime minister. Canadian fans of proportional representation should take note of how much time Borgen’s politicians spend texting each other about who’s supporting whom, who may be thinking of jumping, who would make a good replacement in the coalition, and so on. It all seems a lot like high school: the popularity meter is always running.
Borgen is fiction, of course. But in Denmark’s actual parliament, 10 parties have seats. And the governing Social Democrats hold only 48 of 179 seats. So preserving the government must be top of mind many, many days during the year.
Yes, there are disadvantages to our own system of fat-and-happy majority governments (or comfortably buttressed minority ones) that sail on for years without ever facing imminent demise. Sunny disregard for public opinion is the most obvious.
But the never-ending adrenalin rush that comes from permanently teetering on the cliff can’t be good for the politicians involved. And Borgen suggests Denmark’s TV news — which seems to employ about a third of Danes — is permanently obsessed with covering and maybe even fomenting the serial political crises. It’s as if the whole country were hanging on every word of “Power and politics.”
The season’s big crisis is discovery of oil in Greenland — by a Canadian company, in fact, though its true ownership is murky and becomes an issue. Greenlanders, of whom there are 56,000 living in an area the size of Quebec and Atlantic Canada, are pleased. So are six million Danes, who live in an area one-thirty-sixth the size of Quebec. After some tough negotiating, the two governments decide to split the money “50-50” — for which they use the English wording “fifty-fifty.”
Though everybody likes the billions and billions of Euros that are in play, oil in Greenland is a political problem for Birgitte Nyborg, whose party of (yes) New Democrats ran on climate change. But almost nine in 10 Greenlanders are Inuit. They have high rates of unemployment and suicide. And liberal Danes, at least, don’t like the history of colonialism between the two countries any more than Greenlanders do. So it’s hard to say no to a resource bonanza, especially one you’re getting half of.
What does Birgitte Nyborg do? She switches her party’s policy in the middle of a TV interview. The transition to renewable energy was always going to take time, she says. While that’s happening, it only makes sense to use oil and gas that can be developed in the most environmentally responsible way (as land- and sea-loving Greenlanders and Danes surely will do) by a democratic country that doesn’t abuse anyone’s human rights.
Nyborg is terrifically telegenic and a great explainer who talks in a common sense way without patronizing her audience (unlike some of our own real-life politicians). And of course in this case she has a terrific argument. Reality does say fossil fuels will be with us for decades to come. If providence has provided them to you, as it has to us, why not use them — responsibly?
I’m probably not the only Canadian Borgen viewer to be reminded of convincing pitches regarding the oilsands from former Alberta premier (and New Democrat) Rachel Notley. Responsible development by a reliable democracy should be appealing to lots of potential customers. And many Albertan viewers will find Copenhagen’s high-handedness toward Greenlanders reminiscent of Ottawa’s toward them.
The dictatorial way Nyborg handles this policy switch — and maybe the substance, too — doesn’t sit well with her party. But her convincing delivery of a sensible policy approach should be compulsory viewing for Canadian policy-makers.
