The showdown over the pipelining of the contentious Alberta Oil Sands: British Columbia Premier Christy Clark and Alberta Premier Allison Redford face off in an attempt to decide the fate of this massive oil resource. Either that, or they are grandstanding to try to hang on to their high-profile jobs.
Our media is very quick to take opposite sides. Some claim that developing the oil sands is an effort of the highest order of Canadian patriotic effort. Others decry the inevitable environmental disaster that running an oil pipeline through British Columbia will produce.
Premier Redford seems particularly peeved at the stance taken by Premier Clark. Clark, at first, refused to reply to Redford's request to run an itty bitty oil pipeline through British Columbia's aboriginal lands. Redford would have been happier with a definite yes or no, any sort of official reply was better than the vapid silence being emitted by the BC Legislature (unusual compared to the vapid electioneering chatter that I see as the norm).
Christy Clark's political camp eventually found a way to annoy Alberta far more than an ignoramus non-reply. She offered a five point manifesto that was equal parts political pandering to the unwashed masses, an ill-disguised sop to business interests, and a blatant cash grab. What Premier Redford seems to miss is that negotiating with the British Columbia Liberal government is much like arguing with Curly Howard over the price of clam chowder. Anybody who is used to living here becomes inured to that fact.
Not that Allison Redford sits on a higher perch than Christy Clark. She is the new face on a forty-year-old Albertan oligarchy. The Alberta Conservatives are so creaky that they faced the serious threat of de-election from a party that plastered the likeness of their leader's boobs upon the twin rear wheels of their campaign bus (please click here to see more of that). Voting Conservative in Alberta isn't a choice anymore, it's heritage. Anybody who is used to living over there becomes inured to that fact.
In my view, neither leader seems to be in the right with regards to the pipeline. As long as both can score political points that could generate potential votes, I don't think that either leader wants to be responsible for the quality of the project. The pipeline design effort requires much more diligence than has been shown so far. The money that this pipeline represents needs to be marshaled much more carefully, which may include an adjustment to how its proceeds should be shared. Beyond that, there is a tremendous amount of money involved from stakeholders who would like to see the pipeline succeed: foreign national concerns such as Chinese industry and their partners United States. There is also likely a matching amount from stakeholders who would like the pipeline to remain unbuilt: Middle Eastern oil states, and other American investors who are not tied up with Chinese manufacturing. With any luck, the pipeline negotiations will extend to such a length that those politicians who are involved today will long be in retirement when and if the first ground gets broken for the thing.
Premiers Clark and Redford are in a tiny self-made spotlight just at the forefront of a shadowy mountain of money created out of oil. Like good puppets they are expected to put on a show, and this is what we get for our estimated one hundred billion dollars: a bitumen slap and a catfight.
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