The battle against pipelines and oilsands is running out of steam
Celebrity activist Jane Fonda may not have won many people over during last week’s oils-and-sand-pipelines-bashing Alberta jaunt, but even ardent critics had to appreciate her line about not trusting “good-looking liberals.”
In fact, by the end of the week, many Albertans were saying the same thing about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. It was all part of a rather eventful week, but the abundance of drama shouldn’t distract us from a very simple fact: those wanting to shut down the oilsands and block any and all new pipelines are losing.
That includes not only Fonda and her Greenpeace Canada hosts, but also environmentalist Tzeporah Berman (whose relationship with the Alberta government became even more uncomfortable this week) and a fellow from Peterborough who seems most sympathetic to their cause.
Fonda’s actual quote about Trudeau was that “we shouldn’t be fooled by good-looking liberals no matter how well-spoken they are.” Fonda was speaking of what she and others perceive to be a betrayal by Trudeau concerning his approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline project, but to call the Prime Minister “wellspoken” on the issue is rather charitable indeed.
Were he indeed “well-spoken,” he might have avoided a trap of his own making at a town hall event in Peterborough.
One gentleman, expressing his “shock” Trans Mountain is going through and his fear that “Keystone XL is going to rear its ugly head again,” asked Trudeau what the government’s policy really was concerning “climate change, global warming and pipelines.”
Trudeau’s answer was clearly an attempt to pander to the questioner and those in the crowd applauding the sentiment. However, when you’re prime minister, you’re always speaking to a much broader audience. And folks in Alberta heard his answer, too.
“We can’t shut down the oilsands tomorrow,” Trudeau declared. “We need to phase them out.”
This may have been, as Trudeau tried to insist later on, a basic reiteration of a G7 commitment made in 2015 by Stephen Harper that committed Canada to ending fossil fuel use by the year 2100. Trudeau, though, didn’t articulate anything of the sort. In trying to play the crowdpleaser, the prime minister came across as rather flippant about the future of one of Canada’s economic engines.
As opposition politicians in Alberta pounced, it fell to Premier Rachel Notley to try and offer a defence of sorts for Trudeau. Notley pointed out that the prime minister just recently approved two pipeline projects and that, of course, the oilsands aren’t “going anywhere anytime soon.”
All of this occurred just as B.C. Premier Christy Clark announced her government’s support for the Trans Mountain pipeline, a clear political boost to the project. There was little opportunity, though, to bask in that victory as Notley found herself putting out political fires around the Fonda visit, the Trudeau gaffe, and — not for the first time, either — Berman’s remarks.
Berman, who Notley appointed to co-chair the Oil Sands Advisory Group, remains an ardent and outspoken pipeline opponent. While Notley was celebrating B.C.’s embrace of Trans Mountain, Berman was denouncing Christy Clark as a “lapdog.”
However, the fact remains that Alberta’s NDP leader is at odds with such people, which may not have been the case all that long ago. The realities of governing have turned the NDP into proponents of the oilsands and pipelines, albeit awkward and unconvincing at times.
Despite all the substantial policy differences existing between Alberta’s political parties, a broad political consensus exists around the need for energy development and exports. That consensus includes a Liberal prime minister, and to varying degrees, Canada’s premiers. Fonda, Berman, and their friend in Peterborough would have to look long and hard to find politicians who share their world view.
With Trans Mountain’s approval – and Keystone XL’s likely approval south of the border – there’s little for these folks to celebrate these days.
The rest of us should take solace in that.