No kids,
Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Globe and Mail reporter Campbell Clark suggests Canadian PM Justin Trudeau is being attacked on all sides, thanks to his efforts to try to please everyone, to develop Canadian energy and fight climate change at the same time.
Trudeau has the country’s only viable policy for climate change and pipelines
Campbell Clark
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau thought he’d struck a middle-ground political balance on pipelines and climate policy, but it looks like the centre is getting harder to hold.
The problem for Canadians is that the centre is the only viable path.
B.C. Premier John Horgan is threatening to block the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. The three main leadership candidates for Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party are promising to dump the party’s pledge to adopt a carbon tax. Jason Kenney, Leader of Alberta’s United Conservatives, pledges to kill that province’s carbon tax if he is elected – and polls suggest he probably will be.
All of that is a mounting challenge to Mr. Trudeau’s formula. He had staked out the political middle by promising Canadians they could have both things at once: He’d get resources to market, approving at least one new oil pipeline, but also act on climate change, including putting a price on carbon.
Now, he’s getting attacked from both sides – accused of failing to stop B.C.’s threats to block Trans Mountain, and from the other end of the spectrum of buckling under to the oil industry and sacrificing the environment.
…
Read more (paywalled): https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/trudeau-has-the-countrys-only-viable-policy-for-climate-change-and-pipelines/article37935376/
What a surprise – try to please everybody, end up pleasing nobody.
It’s the same old story….. everyone wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die. However, Trudeau’s approach so far is he would prefer more people to die and only the anointed go to heaven.
Trudeau is taking advantage of a lesson that his father learned the hard way. In response to the Arab Oil Shocks, his father brought in the National Energy Program in 1980. As a result, Eastern Canada had a reliable source of oil and the economy continued to tick along. On the other hand, Alberta could have sold its oil for much more at world prices. The Albertans, and westerners in general, felt ripped off. Because of that, Trudeau Sr’s Liberals then had trouble getting elected west of Manitoba. There was even talk of Alberta secession.
If Trudeau Jr. leaves Alberta with no way to get its oil to tide water, the old alienation will again raise its head.
The NDP government in British Columbia (BC) relies on three Green Party seats to keep itself in power. It has to oppose the pipeline or lose power. If Trudeau manages to ram through the pipeline over BC’s objections, the greens will hate him forever, but they are a small minority. If he doesn’t ram through the pipeline, everyone in Alberta will hate him forever. His Liberal party will lose far fewer votes by supporting the pipeline than by opposing it.
I despise Trudeau, but if we’re being fair, in this case he’s doing what he has to do.
I remember this little poem about Trudeau Sr.:
Pretty accurate summation, Bob. The only thing I would add is that he made his own bed by trying to b.s. everybody from the start. He just uses the soft approach where his old man was a lot more tough and stubborn. Very similar underlying view of the country. Kind of like Hillary only likable.
Trudocchio
One person’s heaven is another person’s hell.
Mark I, think you nicely summed up how completely Justin has managed to put any shred of integrity aside in favor of some form of political wishful thinking.
Giving Justine credit for integrity and thinking, is itself wishful thinking.
Justin is just a pretty air-headed puppet. Good for TV with a script. He said yes to one pipeline project because he was told to but knew that, thanks to his allies, it would probably not get done. He said no to others.
What passes for his brain is his handler, Gerald Butts. Here’s a sanitized description of him:
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/the-man-behind-the-curtain-why-gerald-butts-is-trudeaus-most-trusted-adviser
As they say, Justin loves Butts.
Justin, the delusional man-child operating in a brain-free environment, does and says what Gerald Butts and the UN want him to. His main claims to fame before politics were substitute drama teacher and snowboard instructor. He is an admirer of the way they do things in China and Fidel Castro was a family friend. His dad was a card carrying communist party member in university
Gerald Butts is past director of the World Wildlife Fund Canada and one of the socialist architects of the Ontario economic disaster. He is not elected but he is Justin’s best buddy and primary advisor, and has an inordinate amount of say in just about everything.
Or as we say, the Prime Minister of Canada is Gerald Butts and his press secretary is Justin Trudeau.
Extreme, out of mere kindness, you could have posted a spew alert before you added that very last line!!!
I was drinking hot tea. That’s just cruel!
Gerald Butts was the head of the World Wildlife Fund in Canada before he went to be an adviser for the Ontario Liberals. With his advice Ontario had the gas plant scandal and their form of renewable energy policy which increased the normal households electricity bill by 750% or more. Now he is advising Trudeau and Climate Barbie McKenna. The new policy just unveiled by Trudeau, Butts and McKenna was touted as the greatest set of regulations and policies to allow for energy projects to be approved in two years (or not) as the process has a time line involved now. Failed Enbridge Gateway pipeline was dragged out for 7 years before it was cancelled by Trudeau just after the liberals were elected in 2015. They have not come out and said what is going to happen after the 2 years if there is no approval in the time line yet. Instead of the just environmental and project impacts on the environment the Liberals have added things like Indigenous impacts and approvals ( or disapproval ), Gender impacts ( I am not making this up ) and the cost to the environment in the amount of carbon produced in the full cycle of the resource from the well head, To transporting, to the refining to the end use of a product. TransCanada Pipelines cancelled a 15 billion dollar pipeline project Energy East just last spring because they would have been libel for the total carbon tax on the product as it was laided out in the regulations. Suncor’s President has stated last week that they are looking for investment opportunities outside of Canada because there is little profit margin left on any new energy projects and the approval process has become to uncertain and expensive. I fully expect this is a ploy by Butts and McKenna to stop all fossil fuel development in Canada.
If we had some ham, we could have ham and eggs, if we had some eggs….
Like!
How about Bob and Doug McKenzie?
Leaders take hard positions and often the difficult path.
No matter which side of those issues you fall, you can be assured Justin Trudeau is no leader for Canada, right or left.
True!
I suffered from the fires in Montana for there was so much CO2 in the air. I almost had to go to the hospital for Oxygen. There were so much gas fuel fumes in Havana Cuba air, by the end of the day, my B and B smelled like it was mopped with gasoline. Gag!
I began to think about our Chemistry Tables. Helium is lighter than Nitrogen and Oxygen. Years ago I studied Carbon and if I remember right, Carbon is about six-times heavier than Nitrogen and Oxygen and CO2 for example needs the two oxygen to float around awhile rather than dropping straight to the ground.
So, I wonder, even though threatened with a hanging and having cigarette butts dumped in my driveway for my Letters to the Editor, and, one guy tried to steal my decades of work, when are the Man-Made Global Warming Alarmists going to hang it up and start doing some research?
Paul Pierett
C. Paul Pierett, that seemed awfully random. I didn’t understand much of it. Were you threatened with Gerald “cigarette” Butts for expounding on the Unbearable Lightness of Helium? Were you toasting with Molotov cocktails in Havana? Did someone hijack your web site?
Amazing how Canadians fret about “Global Warming.” Guess this winter wasn’t cold enough?
Canadians are so against the oil industry but still want to have their gasoline and air travel. Justin especially.
He is proud of having spent most of his time flying first class to more than 100 countries.
Billy, Canadians are not so against the oil industry. The minority that object to it are mostly funded by American interests like the Tides Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers and, as usual, they drown out the majority with their shrill and vitriolic objections. It also doesn’t help that our Prime Minister has his head firmly entrenched in the rectal cavity of the UN.
-33C this morning. Imagine if there was no global warming!
It’s easy, if you try.
Yea it would be nearly -33.9 degrees. We probably couldn’t stand it. It would be just too cold.
Imagine there’s no global warming
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the warmunists
Living for today… Aha-ah…
Ought to be some prize responses over at SDA!
This is why the smart diplomats wait until the war is over. Taking the middle ground just gets you shot at by all sides.
The only thing that drives Trudeau is his Narcissism. Every prouncement he makes is as if he practises in front of the mirrors wall..to..wall at the re..modelled 23 Sussex Drive [Canada’s Prime Minister’s residence]. If you don’t believe me, just watch every video and look at every published pic.
The only thing that drives Trudeau is his Narcissism. Every prouncement he makes is as if he practises in front of the mirrors wall..to..wall at the re..modelled 23 Sussex Drive [Canada’s Prime Minister’s residence]. If you don’t believe me, just watch every video and look at every published pic.
He doesn’t live at his official residence at 24 Sussex Drive. It is falling down and requires huge renovations that no Prime Minister has had the guts to pay for because of the potential political backlash.
Trudeau lives in Rideau Cottage at 1 Sussex.
If you’re going to slam Trudeau, which he richly deserves, you have to get your facts right. Otherwise folks will assume that you’re ignorant and ignore you.
Thanx for yr erudite(???????) reply .
22, 23,24.. Sussex Drive … Everyone except you seems to understand the address to which I am referring. What is yr problem??
There is no middle ground, the Greens don’t want energy development, other than their “renewable” scam.
Trudeau loves Butts and it is reciprocated?
Is this Scuttle..Butt, Just..in Time.??
The Liberal / NDiP alliance is out to implement UN Agenda 21/2030 the evidence is all over the place in Canada. They are out to damage the economic health of Canada at the expense of the Energy industries. Particularly the oilsands. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfMxsrcr1D0&t=5s
Thank God someone on here has the grit to mention this reality. People still call that a conspiracy theory (likely the same people who believe vaccines are safe or effective, or that fluoride is good for you, or GMO is safe. It’s disgusting to see such blind naivety regarding some legitimate conspiracies, but recognition of others (CAGW). AND TO BE CLEAR, the monumental fraud is the same with the previously mentioned examples.
I’ve figured it out, people who want to label everything a theory are looking for the conspirators to come out and say “here, yes, this is exactly what we have planned, are doing, and will implement in the future. Here are our secret plans”
It’s as though if they don’t hear a confession they refuse to assign guilt, even though the money trail, collusive interests, and actions clearly illustrate the reality of what they claim is theory. It’s extremely childish and naive.
I’ve no patience for internal conflict and willful ignorance, especially in adults
United Nations Sustainable Development
Rio, June 1992
Agenda 21, 351 pages
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/Agenda21.pdf
People refer to Agenda 21 but how many have seen or read this document?
Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform
Agenda 21: UNCED, 1992
Select any item on the menu for later information.
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/outcomedocuments/agenda21
ALL of Canaduh is Hard Left
Ah Truedeau “Peoplekind” I think the guy is insane!
How did he get elected?
Cheers
Roger
PS When I lived in Canada, his father was the king. Who can trust a Dynasty? OOPs how many Bush’s did we have in the US Presidency?
rogerthesurf .. he got elected by the morons who believe in form over substance. It annoys me that the Canadian electorate does not require to pre..qualify for the Right to Vote ….. a simple Q’aire (Y/N) as to Current Affairs, nationally ….. and internationally so far as Canada’s interests are concerned.
It was those that wanted legal pot. Otherwise non voters actually voted for drugs. Keep the IQ low. It helps socialism
He got elected exactly the same way Obama did – he’s a rock star politician with the unwavering support of the mainstream media who ignore all his many gaffes. Except peoplekind. Politically correct positions, good looks, nice hair, charisma and swooning women will win over substance every time.
Maybe not next time.
Bring back Steven Harper, otherwise we’ll be saying “Sorry, eh?” For the rest of our lives.
Trudope has great hair, sort of like Trump. Great hair wins elections and a drama teacher like Trudope knows how to work the audience with his sickly sweat concern act for every social ill imaginable, that’s an act he’s perfected.
hopefully so will old age and treachery………
How many Clintons? Thankfully only one.
How many Gores? Thankfully zero.
Vivian Krause has done great work in exposing U.S. funding sources used to get him elected.
http://fairquestions.typepad.com/rethink_campaigns/
Here’s another article on the the “war on Canadian oil”.
http://business.financialpost.com/opinion/vivian-krause-new-u-s-funding-for-the-war-on-canadian-oil
The Liberal party wins most elections at the federal level in Canada because young people grow up liberal
always thinking that the world is so unfair and they want to change it. The Liberal party makes sure that it leans left to catch all these young voters who havent yet changed to a conservative way of thinking. The Liberal party doesnt lean too far left or they would collide with the NDP who are even farther left. When the liberals make that mistake then they vote split with the NDP and that gives a chance for the Conservatives to win. However throughout most of Canadas history the liberals have not made that mistake and they have claimed the middle. However when you claim the middle you really satisfy no one because almost everybody is to 1 side of the spectrum or the other even if just a little bit. However at voting time voters have to pick the platform they like best and the party holding the middle usually wins. In the US there is no middle party. That is why politics is so polarized in the US. However changing demographics always favours the conservatives because as we age we realize the mistakes of our youth and are less reckless. So with an aging population the Conservatives will come roaring back after Justin has made too many mistakes. Even his father was hounded out of office eventually.
Agree completely …….
We shd have a pre..qualifying process to earn the right to vote.
Ross
“qualifying process to earn the right to vote.”? how silly.
Voting is just a less bloody way to let people know you are the stronger if a fight ensued.
That’s why it was invented in so called democracies where all free men would fight aside and had the same military worth, and that’s why women, slaves, stranger and men too young to fight didn’t have it.
The question is, if a real fight (with weapon and death) ensued, who would win?
You don’t earn the right to vote. You prove with your weapons and willingness to fight that your will is worthy of consideration, then, and only then, you agree to set aside your weapon provided what you want has as fair a chance to happen as it would if a battle occurred.
Ross King. And guess who would be blocked from voting! Imagine it in the USA – the Deplorables were almost disenfranchised as it is.
Increase the voting age, and require proof of being a net taxpayer.
Alan T., I’m more inclined to see the lock the Liberal Party has on Quebec and if a Quebec-er is in the running for PM the whole province votes as a block for their own little racist French man. That’s why historically the vast majority of PM’s are from Quebec
You would imagine that all Canadians would be looking forward to the Global Warming and doing all they could to bring it on! Instead, they warm up with self-flagellation.
I am not surprised that people accustomed to a cold Canada don’t want it hotter. Habits are a very strong urge. If people are told change will happens no matter what, they just grump and adapt; if they are told it is the product of a pollution that can be averted, at someone else (the polluter)expense, they want it to.
Propaganda WORKS, you know?
Besides, what do you think will happen to Tuareg people if the Sahara was turned green? They would change beyond recognition.
Count me as a “Canadians (that) would be looking forward to the Global Warming “, if only it was actually happening.
The man the boy and the donkey. This story never ends well
Amen!! The ” True Believers” in ANthropogenic Warming want the rest of us to believe that Renewable Energy Sources (wind and solar) can replicate Conventional (Coal, Nuclear) power..supply 24/7/52, 99% of the time.
Sorry …… ain’t so. Look at the S. Australiank experience of blackouts.
Alberta, our biggest oil producing province, made the mistake of electing the NDP socialists who are dead set opposed to fossil fuels. They are following Aussie’s lead in shutting down coal fired electrical generation, to be replaced with 100% renewables. They’ve implemented a carbon tax and policies aimed at discouraging the use of fossil fuels by making them too expensive, and getting people to switch to non-fossil alternatives….which don’t exist. Yeah, it’s illogical but that’s the lefty mindset.
At the same time they follow the lefty tradition of ramping up spending and borrowing…which opened their eyes to the fact that they desperately need income, and the province’s primary source is,,,,oil. So we’re treated to the spectacle of anti-oil, anti-pipeline socialists fighting for pipelines to tidewater so they can sell more oil.
Meanwhile our oh-so-politically-correct environmentalist Prime Minister says all the right things (according to the left) about fighting climate change, transforming to a post-fossil economy out of the left side of his mouth, while saying the pipeline (which is federal jurisdiction) will go through out of the right side. But that’s all he does. He could take action and enforce his authority but he just sits on his hands. I predicted years ago that there would never be another major oil pipeline built in Canada to tidewater. I still stand by that prediction.
Trudeau shouldn’t be taken seriously:
Let’s see
Acid rain, no goog
Climate warming. no good
Climate change, no good
Renewable energy, not to good 300 billions euros a year for 4 years not good. They are spending 1.2 billions to construct a Trans-Adriatique gas pipeline.
Weather bombshell, it’s our fault
Give it a rest, I have no money left and I don’t want to freeze in the dark.
Meanwhile, what goes around comes around. Quebec was fierce in its opposition to the Energy East pipeline that would have paved the way for Canada’s export of oil sands crude. The province got a taste of its own medicine when New Hampshire blocked the export of electricity to Massachusetts.
Import foreign oil, sell military vehicles to foreign country, built in Quebec and Ontario. Follow the money.
Trudeau trying to appease the greens with anything but unquestioning support, has found out the hard why this NEVER WORKS. There are no deals with fanatics, you are either with them or against them. Step one foot from the ‘path of righteousness ‘ and their attack dogs will be on you.
Bingo! X10
A drama teacher like Trudope has no concept the history of the failed strategy of appeasement.
A bit like speaking Franglais. It neither Toronto nor Quebec be.
John Horgan’s big pitch on the CNC was that Canada should stop exporting raw oil products. If the diluted bitumen was not pumped across BC, he claimed somewhat deviously, the pipeline expansion would not have raised their concerns. Of course his greenie pressure friends are calling for ‘no pipelines at all’, because they are getting funds from US groups trying to make it as difficult as possible for China to get oil from Canada by hiring rent-a-mobs and sending the eco-colonists onto the reservations to ‘save’ the ‘environment’. Chinese companies are major owners of the Oil Sands Project. Canada took their money and now blocks their exports.
Forced to export Alberta oil south to the US for half value, the US benefits at the gas pump from the fact the oil is stranded inland. Blocking pipelines to the Texas coast means it has to go by Warren Buffet’s trains.
It reminds us of the good ol’ days when the Robber Barons screwed the entire population out of jobs and money to enrich themselves selling the commons. BC, with an economy completely dependent of selling natural resources, would clear cut the province to sell wood chips to Japan but a pipeline? Horgan guaranteed they would leak – all of them – so with oil being an unnatural product and all, pipelines would only be allowed if they contained refined gasoline.
Trudeau can’t solve this because he can’t bend with the wind in both directions at once. He would need, like the US and China, a strategy and a plan for achieving it’s goals.
What a surprise from the World’s biggest cuck.
aloo
Tru-duh, the air-head puppet, and Climate Barbie. Canada seems to have a fascination with dolls.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/10/26/saudi-aramco-ceo-it-will-be-decades-before-evs-shoulder-a-significant-percentage-of-the-energy-mix/comment-page-1/#comment-2647131
How about a minimum IQ for voting?
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/07/28/the-stupidest-thing-the-federal-government-does/comment-page-1/#comment-2564755
[excerpt]
As George Carlin said:
“You know how stupid the average person is, right? Well, half of them are stupider than that!”
About 30% (or more) of humanity are imbeciles who vote for raving “progressives” like Gerry Brown, who continues to Californicate the Golden State. The left is full of them.
That is the problem with democracy. I dislike programs to “Get Out the Vote”. I want more programs like this:
Skill testing question: “If your car says Dodge on the front, do you really need a horn?” If you fail the question, “Stay home – you are ‘way too stupid to vote.”
Regards, Allan 🙂
Hah! Dodge joke! Never heard that one.
Thanks Allan!
How can they expect me to answer that question if they don’t include font size? Sheeesh!
What about repeal suffrage. Men in the past knew that it would be disastrous. They were right. Now you see it. Men following the lead of women.Ends badly
[The moderators would like to clarify that the views expressed above do not necessarily reflect the views of WUWT or its subsidiaries…]
Trudeau family fortune made by JT’s grandfather who owned 30 gas stations around Montreal. True dough made off of fossil fuels.
Hey let’s call it the policy plan of Obamotrump. Divide and conquer with confusion and smiles.
My impression of Turdy — er, Trudeau – is that he can’t/won’t answer direct questions because he’s dumber than a box of bent screws. I saw a brief episode of him in the Parliament repeatedly being asked a direct question by one of the members and his response was that he’d be happy to answer any questions the member had.
That says an enormous lot on how dumb he is. He may look good in a suit – we had one of those down down here a while back – but he’s all show and no ‘go’, and he’s rude as all get out, too.
Nothing he’s done in office is irrevocable, nor is the damage these witless doodads create irreversible, but it does take time to fix the stupid things they’ve done.
The Mouse That Roared
Middle of the road, babe! It is where you get run over. Till Trudie learns that the accepted term is “mankind” and that humans are not causing climate to change people should just walk on by.
Liberals in Canada. The Liberal MPP (Ontario) for Thunder Bay- Superior North was asked a question when I was in the audience one time. He talked for almost 10 minutes and never once came close to answering the question. I was in awe, a true master politician, a JEDI POLITICIAN.
Rick Nelson:
“You can’t please everyone, so ya got to please yourself.”
Really good comment on this topic from our own homro
vocal skeptic:
http://nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-murphy-alberta-b-c-clash-just-the-latest-result-of-petrophobes-war-on-the-oilsands
That’s the link but I’ve copied the text and pasted it here – it is a good read, written by a guy who can speak extemporaneously on any subject, using complete sentences with two levels of subordinate clauses, with barbed wit as his weapon of choice against bureaucratic bafflegab. And he writes the same way
=======================================
The clash between B.C. and Alberta goes a lot deeper than the current headlines.
At least 10 or 20 years of ruthlessly organized, internationally endowed, wildly overblown scare propaganda against the Canadian oil industry, most especially as symbolized by the Fort McMurray oilsands project, has preceded it. The shielding umbrella under which the campaign has been waged, and the spurious ideological warrant behind it, has been the global warming fetish that locates the Earth’s imminent doom in the industrial economies of modern capitalism. Its foot soldiers have been a tormented assembly of every hard left groupuscule from the trendy Chavistas (Naomi Klein Inc.) to the fatuous (Bill Nye) to the grimly Calvinist Greens. At both ends they are an angry and a zealous lot, unscrupulous in their messaging and remorselessly uncompromising in their aims: shut down oil, cost to the world be damned.
Alberta, in particular, has been their toy. They have had 20 years to spread the message that Alberta’s oil, and Fort McMurray in deep particular, are both trigger and emblem of the coming catastrophe, that the hundreds of thousands who toil in the oil sands are as the orcs of Mordor moving ever closer to returning the Earth to Darkness and working Nature’s ruin.
They have had 20 years to spread the message that the hundreds of thousands who toil in the oil sands are as the orcs of Mordor moving ever closer to returning the Earth to Darkness
No other state or province, and no other single project has borne the weight of calumny and accusation as have Alberta and the oil sands. No campaigns against projects in China, India, the Middle East, the U.S. or Latin America have been of even near duration or intensity as their relentless crusade against Fort McMurray. The oil sands are as a pinprick in the world’s energy production, yet as the eco-Furies paint them, they are Armageddon’s launch pad.
When, despite protest, propaganda, misrepresentation and chronic interference, the oil sands project did move ahead, when, despite the “infinite regress” (C. Cosh) of environmental assessment and reassessment, it lurched to production, clearly novel tactics had to be summoned, the campaign reframed.
No other state or province, and no other single project has borne the weight of calumny and accusation as have Alberta and the oil sands. No campaigns against projects in China, India, the Middle East, the U.S. or Latin America have been of even near duration or intensity as their relentless crusade against Fort McMurray. The oil sands are as a pinprick in the world’s energy production, yet as the eco-Furies paint them, they are Armageddon’s launch pad.
When, despite protest, propaganda, misrepresentation and chronic interference, the oil sands project did move ahead, when, despite the “infinite regress” (C. Cosh) of environmental assessment and reassessment, it lurched to production, clearly novel tactics had to be summoned, the campaign reframed.
Delay and obstruction are activists’ favoured munitions, as seen in so many other pipelines and projects. Petronas and its $36-billion project was procrastinated into oblivion. Energy East was cancelled over ever-extended regulations. Stall, freeze, regulate, litigate, occupy and demonstrate — anything that slows progress or jams an operation — if it’s the oil sands, all’s on the table. Obama speciously dawdled for his whole two terms on Keystone. Fortunately, on that one Mr. Trump was more prompt.
The tactics change, the game remains the same — stop Alberta and its “toxic” world-ruinous oil sands. It is in this context we should view recent events, and the emergence of the Alberta-B.C. clash.
Two decades of incessant campaign and propaganda have had a cumulative effect — an abiding weight of preconception and indisposition against any fair reading of Alberta’s dilemma. It lubricates the singular and farcical association of the oil sands and the green nightmare of CO2 doom.
And it supplies the backdrop for the political maneuvering of B.C. Premier John Horgan and his Green Council of Three, the shameless demand for yet another environmental assessment — the most transparent political ploy since Dalton McGuinty in Ontario cancelled two gas plants to leverage an election vote.
It should also work to remind people that when Mr. Trudeau endlessly parrots the formula of the “balance between the environment and the economy” it is not a balance he has any personal familiarity or experience with. On how many of his incessant travels has he spoken up for Alberta’s industry, or, equally to the point, condemned the concert of environmental groups making a career out of opposition to Alberta? He has had the choice of venues and the world’s ear. How many times even within Canada? Has there even been one national address on Alberta’s plight — after the price downturn, after the inferno that ravaged Fort McMurray, after the fight of capital and companies from the oilsands? No. Contrast that with his interminable rhapsodies on carbon taxes and climate change.
And so it is that with the latest salvo from B.C., Premier Rachel Notley pushes on alone.
She may have thought she had a deal with Justin Trudeau on “social licence” but she never did — just a treacle of insincere bromides, verbal goo to serve a moment’s press, forgotten before the camera lights dimmed. Her erstwhile partner in “the balance” hovers blandly above the contest, even as a fracture in the Confederation threatens.
Oh, the Trudeau government has approved the pipeline. Mr. Trudeau has said so himself as recently as Thursday in San Francisco. How lethargic though are his iterations of that approval, passionless to the point of coma. Where’s his presence on the issue? Where’s the prime ministerial voice on its relation to the national interest? Where’s his rebuke to the grandstanding in B.C.? He’s been stronger lobbying Jeff Bezos on Amazon for Toronto than the country or the world on the oil sands.
A province that fed the national economy during rough times is having rough times itself. Return the favour, serve the national interest, and declare the time for obstruction, assessments and political theatre is over. Alberta should not have to keep selling its resource at a blinding discount because the prime minister shivers over the thought of a backlash from Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, or a frown from the one-member, one-cause party in the House of Commons.
The Trudeau government it is clear, from the mouth of its leader, and the cast of its advisers, and the character of its ministers on this file, devotes far more sympathy to those who warn of oil, fear global collapse and participate in global campaigns against it, than the opposite. They are ParisPeople more than CalgaryPeople, more Rio than Fort Mac. The IPCC will never convene in Edmonton.
homegrown
At least the Canadian libs have moved on from buying guns for the Black Panthers anarchists and listing the U.S. as its greatest international threat during Republican Presidential terms to other mind games and side shows.
That is why I am personally boycotting BC products and writing to the BC companies. Yes, a very small gesture, but mine to do.
God bless Rex Murphy! It is worth every cent, buying Saturday’s National Post just to catch his regular column …… actually, the N.P. is far and away Canada’s best newspaper, and well worth the daily subscription.
And the incredible thing is, they still let him have a comment spot on CBC television. He must have a contract and a good lawyer.
Just send more drill rigs and resource investment south of the border. They won’t know the difference if they don’t talk about it, right?
Several very capable and well-connected people have explained Canadian federal politics to me, as follows:
The Liberal Party of Canada is a front for organized crime in Eastern Canada, centered in Montreal. Liberal party leaders are often oblivious to the fact, and are selected because they are sufficiently obtuse and malleable to follow instructions.
Why would Quebec not want the Energy East pipeline to bring Western Canadian crude oil to its two large refineries in Montreal and one more near Quebec City, at a cost that is much less than the international crude that is brought by tanker up the St. Lawrence River to Quebec City and Montreal – at much more expensive international Brent crude prices?
Not only is Western Canadian crude much less expensive, but with a pipeline there is no risk of a tanker spill in the St. Lawrence River or along the eastern coastline of Canada. Quebec’s opposition to this pipeline does not make any sense economically or environmentally, unless there is an ulterior (and probably criminal) motive.
Young Trudeau is not the only Liberal Prime Minister who is a clueless dolt – Jean Chretien was dumb as a sack of hammers and one of the most openly corrupt Prime Ministers in Canadian history. Justin’s father Pierre was regarded by some as intelligent, but he was a doctrinaire socialist who befriended murderous dictators like Fidel Castro and implemented the imbecilic National Energy Program, which squandered billions and almost split the country – hardly genius material.
The common ground for all Liberal Prime Ministers was the creations of big, foolish government programs that enabled huge amounts of graft to be siphoned off by their favorites, with appropriate kickbacks to the Liberal Party and favoured individuals.
That’s it folks – everything you really needed to know about Liberal Party politics in Canada, but were afraid to ask.
Wow, I can hardly believe the vitriol and supposed “understanding” of Canadian politics from most posters! As a Canadian senior citizen who grew up in the US, I’ve observed the politics of both countries. As well, I’ve seen the Great Climate Scare in all its ugliness, although I initially accepted the “scientific evidence”.
Trudeau has obviously developed political skills that enabled his party to return from third party (not even official opposition) status to form a majority government. That’s the natural goal of any party leader (and somewhat similar a presidential candidate). I think Trudeau’s strongly demonstrated that he’s not a dolt but a shrewd politician. (He’s also human and capable of making bad jokes, such as the “peoplekind” remark.)
It’s been said that the Liberal Party campaigns from the left, although it’s really a centrist party, and that’s where the majority of voters are. However, by campaigning from the left, it can pick up votes that might otherwise go to the truly left party, the NDP. (The Green Party is quite left too but pretty small.) As most of us know, leftists tend to belong to the Church of AGW and oppose fossil fuels. I don’t know if Trudeau is truly a member of that church, but he sure as heck knows there are votes to be found among its members. I’m afraid the carbon tax will go ahead, but I expect that the federal government will soon put a stop to the B.C. government’s leftist obstruction of the pipeline. Trudeau may have waited longer to exert federal authority than many would like, but I suspect that’s a political game to try to minimize vote losses in British Columbia.
I think he’s tougher than those insulting Trudeau give him credit for. Patrick Brazeau certainly knows that!
David – you failed to address any of the obvious, public failings of Jean Chretien or the Trudeau’s, père et fils. The failures of Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chretien are writ large, so let’s talk about Justin.
Justin has yet to do anything of value for the nation – one does not have to obsess over his empty-headed talking points, one just has to examine the few actions he has taken – or failed to take:
– like ordering the $10 million settlement to Omar Khadr, who threw a grenade that killed an American soldier and blinded another.
– like failing to support the Energy East pipeline, which would have taken much cheaper Western Canadian crude oil to the two big refineries in Montreal, the refinery near Quebec City and the huge Irving refinery in St. John NB, and taken the crude there safely by pipeline, rather than arriving by tanker where spills are probable.
– pandering to every foolish “progressive” cause known to people-kind, and some that only rattle around in his empty cranium.
The man is his mother’s son – he has her looks, and her lack of brains. He has reportedly only held two part-time jobs – as drama teacher and snow-board instructor, and was not that good at either one.
Canada is failing under his “leadership” and his enslavement to the destructive nonsense of Global Warming alarmism, aka Climate Change, aka Sustainability, aka whatever the new-word-of-the-moment is this month.
I do not hate the man – I merely reflect that he is the brainless front man for the Montreal-based criminal element that is the Liberal Party of Canada. Every time the Liberals are elected, they are indifferent to the well-being of the country and implement policies that enable them to maximize graft and corruption.
Energy policy in Canada is a shambles, as destructive people with no scientific competence and imbecilic obsessions to “fight global warming” are in control of policy.
“Getting elected” may be your definition of success by a politician. Managing the country with competence is mine, and Justin Trudeau is an embarrassing disaster.
You really are a completely clueless liberal. He was elected by getting the people who generally don’t vote (pot heads) to vote. Anyone could have done that. That’s it. He is a lightweight intellectually, even less so than that gargoyle chretien.
Tredeaux is strange
He seems to be well informed on matters, but then flies off on moronic (at least to my eyes) tangents
I would hate to be him and try to get s good nights sleep without my dreams being invaded by continual dichotomy and cognitive dissonance
Some fine academic thinking, right here… concerning fossil fuels must stay buried, GHG emissions, Kinder Morgan pipeline, and oilsands CO2 pollution.
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Trevor Hancock (of UVic): Alberta proclaims its right to pollute
The David Suzuki Foundation’s Blue Dot campaign aims to enshrine the right to a healthy environment in the Canadian Constitution, and last year the federal Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development urged the government to enshrine it in law.
http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/columnists/trevor-hancock-alberta-proclaims-its-right-to-pollute-1.23170432
When it was a new organization with a more apparent scientific focus on environmental issues, I was a Suzuki Foundation supporter. But then it became AGW-focussed and turned into another self-righteous “green meanie” organization and lost my support. It seems that B.C. is the home of the loony left in Canada.
There’s no question that Trudeau wants to be liked, which I think is the main reason for delaying exercising federal authority on the Kinder Morgan pipeline, but he seems to be more realistic than Suzuki, et al. Only time will tell.
PM Justin Trudeau and adviser Gerald Butts were only interested in pleasing the alarmists.