Down in the States, President Obama has nixed the Keystone XL pipeline – for now. The company behind it can re-apply
using a new route, and it’ll go through the whole process again (not expedited),
and he’ll get the political points he was after (this was in part about smacking
the Republicans for giving him a 60 day deadline that could not adequately do the
job of assessing the new route, or something like that, while he protected his
own environmentalist base before the November election). Back home, Harper and
Alberta premier Alison Redford have expressed their profound disappointment,
and talking energy market diversification. The NDP, meanwhile, are
declaring victory but still won’t articulate what exactly they plan to do with
the oil coming out of the tar sands. Build new upgraders and refineries in
Alberta for billions of dollars, blowing all carbon emissions targets out of
the water, and then shipping away the “value added” product, rather than
sending it to where existing refining capacity exists? How exactly is this a “victory
for climate change,” as Nathan Cullen termed it? It might be helpful to know.
Paul Wells recalls the speech Stephen
Harper made in the Commons when he became leader of the opposition, about how
the government was unable to do anything about US protectionism because they
weren’t really free traders willing to engage the Americans. With the demise of
Keystone XL (for now anyway), it really makes one wonder if Harper feels he should
no longer deserve the confidence of the House for the very thing he lambasted
the Chrétien government for.
Embassy magazine looks at why the government is vocal about (basic) queer
rights at home while they simultaneously are trying to limit the extent of
equal marriage.
The perpetual story of MP pensions has come
up yet again, and lo, their “platinum-plated” pensions are oh so lucrative.
Except for the fact that it seems to ignore the fact that a) these people work
24/7, unlike people in the private sector, b) most of them have to give up
established pension and benefit plans from their previous jobs for a life of
public service that has no guarantees (I know several MPs who got defeated
without getting their six years for an MP pension, and not being able to go
back to their previous pensions to retire on), and c) I don’t know of a single
MP who got into politics for the great pension and benefits plans, so it’s
really disingenuous to present this as some kind of a consideration or ulterior
motive.
There was an “unofficial” NDP leadership debate in Toronto last night on the topic of cities. Apparently the consensus
is that we need more national strategies for everything.
The government released their report on
reducing red tape yesterday, and promised to cut one piece of regulation for
every new one they implement – except for health and safety ones of course.
Here is a very interesting piece on the way
that CIDA is being run, and it’s evident there are very major problems with the
agency, largely stemming from political interference.
And candidates for Alberta’s nonsense
Senate “consultative election” are looking at the job ahead of trying to become
known before such an election happens at some point in the spring, and seeing
what kind of a daunting task it’s going to be.
