Tuesday, January 17, 2017

And Then He Proved Us Right


Justin Trudeau was right when he said, "One of the things we inherited from the previous government was a high degree of mistrust by Canadians,” on pipelines.

It apparently hasn't dawned on Trudeau that he wasted no time proving how much that mistrust was justified.

It's like that farcical line he delivered with a straight face in Calgary when he said, "you can't chose between the environment and the economy." Of course he can choose. He chose the fossil fuelers when he approved the Site C dam. He chose the fossil fuelers when he approved BC's LNG fiasco. He chose the fossil fuelers when he approved the Kinder Morgan and Energy East pipelines.

It's unclear whether Trudeau can't think straight or he imagines that we can't. He plainly takes the Canadian people for fools. He's not man enough to accept responsibility for what he's chosen to do. He can't admit that he broke his word both to our First Nations and the greater community, especially the people of British Columbia.

But, wait, what about the Northern Gateway? He said no to that, right? Of course he did. With the Keystone XL going ahead and the Energy East line and Kinder Morgan flooding Vancouver's inner harbour with prime Athabasca dilbit, Northern Gateway was pointless.

9 comments:

CuJoYYC said...

Always nice to read the posts of those who think they live in a binary world. It always humours me when the left employ the same logical fallacies as the right. Both sides eschew nuance to their peril.

The Mound of Sound said...

Sorry CuJo but this has nothing to do with nuance. It has everything to do with promises that were made repeatedly and, once no longer required, ditched. Every Liberal MP in British Columbia knows exactly what happened and they're all deeply worried for what awaits them in 2019.

CuJoYYC said...

Then I suggest you have a very selective memory.

Anonymous said...

Calgary Airport CuJo: Care to follow up with some evidence to your assertions?

mr perfect

Northern PoV said...

Trudeau (alas) is the best thing to happen to the Alberta ff industry in decades. The cosmetic 'carbon tax' is the juice that greases the skids here.
The lemming like response from Jean & Kenney is simply a joke.

Let's hope their over-reach blows up the whole thing (esp KM) before it gets started.

Dilbit is not marketable at the moment, it really makes me wonder wtf they think the long game is. The Saudis (and the new-lost-cost fracking ops in the USA) will keep the price low to try and suppress solar etc for as long as possible.)

Toby said...

I think the politicians are out of their depth. If they knew what they were doing they would eliminate subsidies to fossil fuel industries. That would fit within their neo-liberal ideals, wouldn't it?

There are problems. The public screams do something. The pols jump to do more of the same expecting different results. The urge to throw tax dollars at every problem is overwhelming. In spite of ideology, big industry always has its hand out.

Northern PoV, I think the long game is more corporate welfare.

the salamander said...

.. can somebody point me to a Canadian politician who can explain in 30 to 60 seconds how exporting Dilbit or LNG to Asia = energy security for Canadians? OK, how about in the same time frame explain how dilbit, on reaching Asia, suddenly becomes WTI or Brent.. you know, that weird 'discount' of Alberta 'oil'.. and the miracle of getting it to 'tidewater' .. by which I presume they mean the coast of British Columbia. Is it that hard to pronounce or twist off the forked tongue? Joe Oliver seemed to think 'tidewater' was a dreamy floaty wonderspace threatened by foreign funded tree huggers.. a place where Asian supertankers should roam free.. and f__k the wales eh!

Now we gets too young but middle aged Justin rapsodizing about how only fools would leave the wealth in the ground.. and sending our lawyers to quash an imminent Mount Polley trial.. if they aint too tied tied up trying to quash military vets looking for a square deal.. not another promise broken.. This kind of political shite aint 'optics' .. and it aint sunny ways.. its exactly what Stephen Harper & cabin boyo Ray Novak were dosing us with.. hoping we'd all be placid & content.. cuz there was a strong steady hand on the tiller.. an economic genius dontcha know.. Well, I await the repeal of the destroying anti-environment legislation.. sweeping efforts to address First Nations issue, rights & consultation..

I await Christy Clark getting her ass kicked for selling out & triple deleting.. Last I looked, BC is our western border.. not a portal for Asian supertankers. Defend the coasts.. don't give them away.. Where are our patrol vessels, our search and rescue? Where is direct funding for our small lakes research center? Why can we not get our public servants paid via Phoenix? Are you kidding? The list of failures is growing Mr Trudeau, not shrinking .. We expect and we need a highly active & capable PM here in Canada.. so roll up the sleeves and get to work here.. not elsewhere.. and start delivering on promises.. not blowing them off ..

Purple library guy said...

Actually, the sad thing is that Trudeau was not, in fact, choosing the economy over the environment. He may think that is what he was doing (even though he claims otherwise), but reliance on fossil fuel export and for that matter on raw materials exploitation generally hasn't been good for the Canadian economy. Emphasizing renewables instead would create much more jobs for the same level of investment, and probably far more tax dollars as well; what it would not create is concentrated windfall profits going to a few hyper-wealthy at the top. Since it is those hyper-wealthy at the top who have the political influence, the likes of Trudeau choose the economy best for a small elite over the economy best for most wage-earners (and that's before we even get into the environmental benefits).

Side note: I always find it a bit odd that the Site C dam is seen as a fossil fuel thing, like a pipeline or an LNG plant. The Site C dam is a top-down megaproject which is running roughshod over local concerns, which may be economically misguided, and which will be bad for the river (and presumably salmon runs and all kinds of stuff related to that). In that sense it's kind of like a pipeline. But at the same time, it is not a fossil fuel project; hydroelectric power does not burn fuel, it makes electricity from falling water. So from a global warming perspective it's sustainable--just like most of the existing electrical power generation in BC. Which is not to say I'm for it--I don't think I am. But there's just something weird in the way it gets talked about, is all. It's like there's a concerted effort to make it just the same as Northern Gateway or the Kinder Morgan thing so people energized by those issues will just sign off on opposing Site C without thinking too hard, when actually it's a significantly different issue.

Northern PoV said...

Hey Purple L Guy ....

Site C is being built (w/o economic logic) to have taxpayers subsidize the LNG scam. (They need the power to freeze the gas.)

Even solar & wind require some carbon investment to build and install. After that they are pretty benign. But the rosy days of believing 'hydro' is totally clean are (alas) over:

http://commonsensecanadian.ca/lets-quit-pretending-dams-like-site-c-are-good-for-the-climate/