Chantal's a smart lady, but she doesn't understand the ROC so well, and less and less as you go farther West. If Harper's remarks are supposed to be a threat aimed at B.C. should they resist the construction of Northern Gateway and Trans Mountain, then he will have something between riots and a civil war on his hands if he tries to follow-up. Going East, I'm not so sure. These projects seem to be re-purposing existing pipe-line rather digging new ditches. But threats out of Albertans will do the opposite than pave the way for them.
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I've been saying for some time that if the oil industry could not have made a worse hire than the Harper government.
The man's a deluded patzer, not a chess master. Saying to the Americans that if they say "no" we won't accept their decision: that is just so stupid. Who does he think he's dealing with?
Basically, a sovereign people, and especially Americans, never take kindly to foreigners telling them they can't say or do something.
.. not to worry .. Stephen Harper will try to mobilize his divine evangelical Leopard panzer divisions, F35 fluffwaffe, marine rowboats and PMO backroom boyz in short pants .. n teach those lickspittle 'mericans' a thing or two about the Shock and Awe he commands.
Thus Del Mastro, Mackay, Jenni Byrne, Poilievre, under General Ray Novak will muster the caucus then sally forth .. muddle about for a while.. and John Baird or Jason Kenney will declare a prorogue.. or group hug or a BBQ at Jason's mommy's place ..
I predict they could well end up in Niagara Falls or Marineland.. or a magic kingdom where dinosaurs walk among men .. and will prorogue the 'won't take no' talk till later
I spoke with a Wing Chief of the Wet su Wet'n several years ago and he said that the first nations know what is at stake and will actively oppose the Northern Gateway pipeline. Read what you will into that.... Think of Oka on steroids.
The Transmountain pipeline was not part of that discussion.
Where's Waldo
Of the four major pipeline projects currently proposed, Transmountain and the TCPL East proposal can be moved forward with a minimum amount of difficulty. Both of them are fundamentally based on existing rights-of-way or repurposing existing pipe. I suspect they could go ahead with relatively minor regulatory reviews.
Keystone XL and Northern Gateway are both new pipe on new routes - and as such completely different discussions to be had.
I've said it before, as far as I am concerned, we should be refining to final product in Canada and selling it to the rest of the world. Not selling the raw material at cut rate.
MGS,
I am beginning to wonder about this with respect to Trans Mountain, however. The promise was that it would all be built within the existing right of way. The reality is that the number of complaints about the line going outside those boundaries has increased as time has gone by.
BCL: Agreed that there are concerns - I would want to see the survey reports on those claims.
The existing Trans Mountain rights of way are fairly old, so it's entirely possible that the proposed changes have some issues. I doubt that the deviations are hugely significant though - more likely requiring KMI to purchase some additional land here and there rather than being a large problem - certainly not a problem on the scale of the risks related to the Northern Gateway proposal. (Making a tanker port at Kitimat just seems brain damaged to me given the navigation hazards involved)
To some extent, I suspect those complaints are more someone playing "barracks-room lawyer" in an effort to disrupt things rather than a credible problem.
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