Sunday, May 01, 2016

"New Pipelines to Tidewater"


Prison culture has its own lexicon, words that have a prison-specific meaning. One of these is "bitch." In prison the word describes a person who is easily cowed and then exploited by a predator. The bitch usually winds up performing certain, oh let's call them, "favours" out of fear of what awaits if he refuses. Once you're a bitch there's no going back. Performing favours is the cost of getting by.

Why do I get this nagging feeling that the Trudeau government has got this "prison bitch" quality? They're all butch when it comes to talking tough but their talk isn't matched by their actions. It's as though somebody got to them, turned them.

Stephane Dion, res ipsa loquitor:



Sounds like a guy whose sharing a cell with Bubba.

Then there's Trudeau's environmental Jean D'Arc, Catherine McKenna who restored Canada's credibility on climate change at the Paris climate summit last December where she boldly helped lead the effort to reduce the "never exceed" warming limit from the old 2C down to just 1.5C. Oh, how we swelled with pride.

Flash forward a couple of months and McKenna is singing a different tune. Now it's "go slow." Apparently taking any meaningful action, according to McKenna, could imperil national unity. Sounds like somebody took McKenna aside for a quiet word. So, if you're wondering, here's McKenna's adjusted bottom line: "I'm not saying we destroy our planet." Cathy, it doesn't matter what you say. You people say all manner of things. You're all over the board depending on who last pulled your string. What matters is what you do and that's all that matters.

Then there's Trudeau's stalwart Transport Minister, Marc Garneau. You might recall that upon taking office, Garneau received a mandate letter from Junior directing that he implement a supertanker moratorium on northern British Columbia waters, killing the Northern Gateway hazmat pipeline before it could inflict irreparable harm on the province and its coastal ecology. There it was, deal done, done deal. A collective sigh of relief was heard along the coast.

Now, in what has become standard procedure for the Trudeau government, the tune has changed.

The project was thought to be dead -- finished off by a Liberal campaign promise to restore a long-standing moratorium on oil tanker traffic off B.C.'s north coast.

But recent comments by federal Transport Minister Marc Garneau have opponents gearing up to fight the controversial pipeline proposal again.

Speaking to Bloomberg News, Garneau was quoted Monday as saying that the government still hasn't "worked out" what a moratorium on tankers actually means. The article also quoted Garneau as saying it is "premature" to say the Northern Gateway is dead.


The government hasn't "worked out" what a moratorium means? Well, why don't you just go back and have a look at the moratorium that kept the north coast safe for years until Harper rescinded it? Sorry, Garneau, you're a bitch.

I call this here banjo "Justin" and I play it
every chance I git.

And if you need more proof of how quickly and thoroughly this has become a lickspittle government, check out Aaron Wherry's analysis piece at CBC's website, "Justin Trudeau's leadership measured by the pipeline question."

If you want to see prison bitchdom in action be sure to cursor down to the clip of National Resources minister Jim Carr.




3 comments:

Bill said...

Well said Mound.

If Justine folds on Northern Gateway he will be doing so as a lesser of two perceived priorities - Western jobs vs a climate changing pipeline.
This is a false bifurcation. If he kept his pledge to no pipeline, no north coast oil tanker traffic and focused on renewable energy projects he would be setting the course for a shift to clean energy, renewable energy and diversifying into new technologies with well paid jobs.

This teetering is a crisis that should be bravely resolved not just for the short term but more importantly for the long term

The Mound of Sound said...


He hasn't got the sand, Bill.

Anonymous said...

Who has "got the sand" in this country Mound?