Politicians slam Gore for tweet opposing pipeline

Premier Rachel Notley and Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi are shrugging off a tweet by former U.S. vice-president Al Gore that slams Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and calls the province’s oilsands dirty.

Remarks like that are having an ever-shrinking impact, Notley said.

“When those kinds of comments are made, and they clearly demonstrate a lack of understanding about the overall issue and all the facts, I just think it’s starting to fall on a larger and larger number of deaf ears,” Notley said Friday at the opening of a new maternity unit at the Peter Lougheed Centre in Calgary.

Gore tweeted Thursday that he stands with B.C. Premier John Horgan, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and other Canadians — including First Nations — opposed to the project.

“The Kinder Morgan pipeline carrying dirty tarsands oil would be a step backward in our efforts to solve the climate crisis,” he wrote, along with the #stopKM hashtag.

Tarsands is a term favoured by industry opponents.

“The last I checked, Mr. Gore has no regulatory authority in Canada, nor obviously from that tweet, any actual knowledge of the situation,” Nenshi said. “So it’s a shame that someone like that would comment on something they obviously don’t understand.”

Notley said public opinion polls are showing growing support for the $7.4-billion project, which would triple the amount of crude shipped from the Edmonton area to B.C.’s Lower Mainland along an existing pipeline route.

“We’re also seeing … previously less vocal people come forward now, saying ‘No no, this is good. We do need to stand up for this. We do need to make our voices heard.”’

United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney called Gore’s remark “an inconvenient lie from a jet-setting millionaire.”

“While the U.S.A. & OPEC countries ship more oil, this hypocrite who owns multiple mansions and flies private jets wants to landlock Canadian oil,” Kenney tweeted Thursday. “Canadians have had enough of your campaign of double standards and defamation.”

Notley reiterated Friday that she’s confident talks aimed at getting construction of the pipeline expansion back on track will be successful before a May 31 deadline.

Alberta and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government are in discussions with the company to strike a joint financial arrangement to ensure the project gets built.

Mr. Gore has no regulatory authority in Canada, nor obviously from that tweet, any actual knowledge of the situation.