British Columbia's Sordid Premier

There's something really sleazy about BC premier Christie Clark.   Faced with growing public opposition to the Northern Gateway and Kinder-Morgan bitumen pipeline trafficking, she sat mute for months as her own and her party's fortunes tanked.

Finally she stood up on her hind legs and announced the pipeline/supertanker business was just too environmentally risky for British Columbia.   Then the other shoe dropped when Crispy said she might look the other way if Alberta and Ottawa cut Victoria in on the action and, of course, pretended to make the whole thing environmentally safe (har, har).

Our unelected, unelectable, outgoing premier gave Alberta premier Alison Redford a perfect opportunity to scream "shakedown."  Redford said there'll be no backdoor profit sharing with B.C.  

Opposition Wildrose leader Danielle Smith made it sound like a hostage taking.

Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith said sharing energy revenue with B.C. would be “problematic for Alberta because we don’t do that.”

“Alberta can’t allow any of its resource revenue to be shared with other jurisdictions because that’s not how it works,” she said. “If B.C. wants to have that discussion, they need to have it with Ottawa.”

And, to keep the fires stoked in British Columbia, Alberta Intergovernmental Relations Minister Cal Dallas compared leaky bitumen pipelines crossing British Columbia and supertankers threatening our coast to Alberta allowing British Columbia forest products to be shipped across the Wild Rose province.  Nice one, you sphincter.

Now it's Harper who has his nuts in a vise.  He's got to cut some deal with B.C. very soon because Crispy and her pack of used car salesmen will be out of work next year and the incoming NDP government has promised to kill the pipelines.   So now you've got cheesy meeting greasy.   Hey, isn't that the recipe for political poutine?