Some majority

Re: “B.C.’s five pipeline conditions will never be met,” Nikki Skuce, Opinion, Nov. 8.

An initial response to Nikki Skuce’s opinion piece would be to discuss each of the five points and illustrate the omissions and weak points of her position. However, I think two more general points can be made.

First, she is a paid activist with ForestEthics, a San Francisco-based group paid by American-based interest groups like the Tides Foundation to attack those Canadian resource industries that compete with the American interests that fund her company.

The supreme irony of her position is that there are 26 offshore drilling platforms off the coast of California that are producing some of the most highly carbon based oil in the world — oil that is pure sludge compared to what is produced in Canada.

These offshore platforms have been producing oil for years and they get a pass from groups like ForestEthics because they are owned by the American interests that fund ForestEthics. The irony could bring a tear to a glass eye.

Second, in her last sentence, she states, “Regardless of Alberta accepting B.C.’s conditions, they will never be met to the satisfaction of British Columbians unwilling to take the risks.” Like the rest of the “pay per protest” movement, she assumes she speaks for the majority of British Columbians — the same majority that were supposed to vote the NDP into power.

The difference between her and industry lobbyists in Ottawa and Washington is she doesn’t wear a suit and she doesn’t pound the pavement.

Beyond that, there’s little to differentiate.

Don MacDonald, Calgary