Tom Henihan
Jason Kenney condemns anyone who has attempted to resolve Alberta’s pipeline impasse between the Federal Government, the Government of B.C. and the environmental movement.
The anti-pipeline expansion activists are okay with oil flowing into Canada from elsewhere such as Saudi Arabia but are opposed to oil flowing from Alberta to other provinces and to markets around the world.
The unilateral efforts of any one country cannot influence global warming; it is by definition a global problem requiring international cooperation. To be effective, countries such as Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Russia and other countries that produce oil and gas must conform to an equitable set of rules.
The oceans are not the exclusive concern of one jurisdiction either, because like the atmosphere the oceans are fluid and of mutual concern to all.
So, these global warming advocates and anti-pipeline activists should advocate for real international cooperation instead of sabotaging Alberta’s oil getting to market while granting Saudi oil tankers safe passage.
Canada continues to buy $300 million per month of Saudi crude, which amounts to over three and a half billion dollars a year.
These environmentalists, or as they often like to fashion themselves as “eco warriors” would be more reticent and less “warrior-like” in any other jurisdiction, as the repercussions for their behavior would be substantially more grave.
Here in Canada, however, our new age, sensitive prime minister emboldens these nearsighted fanatics because they believe the activists believe they have tacit approval from Ottawa.
UCP leader, Jason Kenney, condemns anyone who has attempted to resolve Alberta’s pipeline impasse, reserving special mention for giving Premier Rachael Notley.
Jason Kenney is blaming Rachael Notley for using diplomacy and cooperation first in dealing with both the federal government, the B.C. Government and the environmental movement. True leadership should always use diplomacy first as Notley rightly did: that the other parties reneged on every front is hardly the premiere’s fault.
“I think the huge mistake that Premier Notley made was writing Justin Trudeau a blank political cheque, creating an alliance with the Trudeau government that has done everything it can to prevent us from getting a pipeline built,” Kenney said in a Global News interview.
“Prime Minister Trudeau, who vetoed the Northern Gateway pipeline, killed Energy East, surrendered to Barack Obama’s veto of Northern Gateway and has completely bungled the Trans Mountain expansion.”
Of course, Notley did not write Trudeau a blank cheque, and if she had, a blank cheque to spend on what? Notley’s trust in Trudeau’s may have been misplaced, but as he has no political sway here in Alberta a blank cheque for Trudeau remains just that – a blank cheque.
For Kenney to suggest that Trudeau surrendered to Obama’s veto of Northern Gateway is absurd, considering that the Prime Minister of Canada has no direct influence in the U.S. affairs.
To fault Premier Notley for the unprincipled, shifty behaviour of Trudeau is to perpetrate an intentional lie. Much of what Kenney has to say, the strategies he employs are indicative of the current political trend of bending the truth and skewing the facts to further one’s own political ends.
We don’t have to look too far to recognize what a bottomless pit we fall into when politicians not only fail to speak the truth but consciously circumvent it.