This Day In Conflictyland...Rafe Climbs (All The Way) On Board.

RememberWhenThe'98WasReallyA
GiantVille

Regarding both Ms. Clark and, perhaps more importantly, her government's Conflict Commissioner:

"...I remember you when you were smart, Paul. But I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, since you don't think that the fact of your son's long and close friendship with Clark and that he is a politically appointed deputy minister in her government places you in a conflict of interest! Hell, Paul, you're probably right. I mean, who would ever dream that a lawyer making $269,000 a year from a legislature made up largely of Liberals would consider it in his interest to keep those Liberals kindly disposed towards him?..."


Gosh.

And, if I remember correctly, the good Mr. Mair himself is also lawyer.

But not a farmer.

Unless, of course, he also hates Email but doesn't mind  the feel of a Blackberry.

Ha!



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This Sunday In Snookland...Word Salad Wednesday Comes Early.

AndWhoStenoed-UpThatMDayPieceForZussmanAnyway?
SmartVille


From our fine premier's shiny happy people appearance on the CBC's  'The House' yesterday:

..."I'd remind Americans that America was never made great, and no American president is remembered as great, because he built walls."...


Then again, 'studies' show that most folks who cross the border where Trump actually wants to build his wall end up working for minimum wage (or less).

Which, ipso-facto-Christyco, means that all those border crossers and the low end foreign wage earners that Mr. Trump apparently likes to employ in his fine wine 'n dine emporiums must be living at home while living in a foreign land.

Or some such thing. 


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And The Cronies Shall Inherit The Earth.

OhMarginMyMargin
TaxBracketVille


So.

Due to the egregious actions of the socialist horders, Alberta's income tax for the super wealthy (i.e. those earning more that $300K/year) is now only the third lowest in Canada.

Slightly better (i.e. higher) than B.C. and Ontario (but not really because their slightly lower top rates kick in down in the hundreds) and exactly dead even with the boffo Brad's super-slasher government in Saskatchewan.

All of which means that big money mining guy Murray Edwards, who once a raised a million dollars for the BC Liberal Party's premier palm-greasing laundering facility just before his un-monitored pile of dirt failed, has been forced to flee the province and, thanks to JTrudeau's heavy handedness also, the country.

Or.

Perhaps not.

At least according to the 180ish MoCo division in Calgary:

..."What (Mr. Edwards is) struggling with and what every businessman is struggling with is the sheer incompetence that's been layered over us at the municipal and federal and provincial levels by inexperienced governments," said Brett Wilson, a Calgary investment banker and close friend of Edwards...

Though Wilson told CBC he doesn't believe taxes are the reason Edwards left Canada...


Calgary investment bankers.

Now there's a source pool I sure would like to hear more from re: 'sheer incompentence' and the 'layering' and all that.

And while he's at it, perhaps Mr. Wilson, or the CTF, or the Fraser Institute, or the Calgary Herald would like to tell us what they think about kd lang and all that.

Sheesh.



_______
And, regarding Mr. Edwards failed pile of dirt at Mount Polley...The following is a Steve Earle tune that was Phil Ochsified at the time to try and explain what went down:
 

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This Weekend In Clarkland...Damning With Faint Obviousness.

Turnin'BackToTheHerd
ConventionalWisdomVille


I have to give Mr. Mason of the The Globe and (nolongerEmpire) Mail some credit.

Because he has, in my opinion at least, been the most active member of the local proMedia in telling British Columbians that there really is a big pile of super-secret money being funneled into the BC Liberal's Party gullet, some of which makes its way to the palm of our fine premier after it has been pooped out the other end.

And heckfire.

In yesterday's column Mr. Mason kinda/sorta almost tiptoed over the 'pay-to-play' line when he started talking about hunting guides, their five figure donations and grizzly bear trophies and such.

Which is all fine and good.

But I also found it interesting, given the events of the last week, that Mason did not mention the millions from mining co's and execs that are extremely well-correlated with the complete lack of oversight of said mining co's and execs that is now entrenched in British Columbia thanks to BC Liberal government policy and legislation.

Or all that money from bridge builders.

Or tunnel borers.

Or train makers.

Or, dare I say it, lawyers? (more on that to come because I'm still really angry about something)

Anyway, after his wee bit of tip-toeing was all done, a little further down the column Mr. Mason signaled that the time has come to really start pulling the punches because, well, the trains are running on time or some such conventionally whimsical wisdomish-type thing:

"...The NDP is likely to make the notion of fixing a corrupt electoral system a pillar of its election campaign. The Liberals are certain to make the next election exclusively about jobs, the economy and fiscal management – and their record on this front is unquestionably impressive..."


Hmmmmm....

Jobs, the economy and fiscal management and 'unquestionably impressive'?

Really Mr. Mason?

Let's see....

Is there somewhere we can go for an unbiased, in-depth look at such things that do not rely on deceptive accounting and/or the spinning of very short-term trend numbers that are often bucked-up by deep dives that occurred during the previous term and/or terms?

I know!

How about we turn to the 'Progress Board', that flaming pinko outfit that was put together by Gordon Campbell that did the in-depth/un-biased analysis to show that the 1990's were actually a little better than the 2000's by most measures.

I mean, maybe that outfit can tell us how 'Pay-To-Play-In-Extremis' has helped float all boats (or not) over the last five years?

Oh, wait...

Nevermind.


_______
Why does the turning back to the herd matter so much?....Because it keeps the public from understanding what is really happening to their province...Which, of course, is ironic given Mr. Mason's recent lament about how said public just doesn't get it...Oh, and just for the record...It was also Mr. Mason who said that the still-birthing of the LNG Sparkle Ponies doesn't really matter much because everything economic is just so unbelievably rosy 'round here...


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Is There A Potential For A Perceived Conflict Of Interest Involving The Conflict Commissioner?

OnceYouKnowAThingYouCannotPretendTo
UnknowItVille


Look.

After this latest report of a provincial government leak, this time apparently involving the Conflict Commissioner's report (scroll down) on Ms. Christy Clark's secret large dollar fundraising activities, there is something I fee compelled to revisit as a citizen of British Columbia...

****

The following is from a post I wrote in back in 2014 when the matter of Ms. Christy Clark's having been associated with a lobbying shop run by her former husband prior to her becoming the premier arose in the public prints:

Remember what our fine Premier, Ms. Christy Clark, told the proMedia, and anyone else who would listen after Matthew Millar's third story broke in the NaPo, about her demonstrable pre-premier connections to a subsidiary company of RCI, which itself is a company that our fine Premier has done her best to pump while in office?

I mean, it was only a couple of weeks ago, right?

Well...

For the record, here is what Ms. Clark told the VSun's Rob Shaw:

...“I never did any work for the company, I wasn’t paid by the company, I never attending any meetings at the request of the company, and as far as I know the company never really got off the ground,” she said at the legislature...
 
Which is a pretty emphatic statement, no?
 
Except...
 
As we have already pointed out, there is documentary evidence which suggests that something quite different may have gone down with said 'company' given their letter-based overture to the University of New Brunswick a number of months after their incorporation. In addition, this letter was dated a full two months after Ms. Clark's first monetary compensation was due to arrive based on the company's original invitation/contract to her.
 
An invitation/contract, by the way, that Ms. Clark herself signed off on.
 
And last week Bob Mackin unearthed more paper involving additional overtures to (gasp!) Ms. Clark's old alma mater, Simon Fraser University.
 
And while very few of the proMedia herd have followed up on such documentary evidence, have no fear because the good Premier offered a 'don't worry, be happy' - type solution that seems to have satisfied said herd:
 
...(Ms. Clark) said she’d be happy to forward the matter to B.C.’s Conflict of Interest Commissioner for review...

****

With all of the above as pre-amble...

Please recall that the Conflict of Interest Commissioner that Ms. Clark was referring to is a very fine public servant by the name of Mr. Paul Fraser who was originally appointed by Ms. Clark's former boss, then Premier Gordon Campbell.

And please also recall that Mr. Fraser was forced to recuse himself from John van Dongen's recent complaint that revolved around Ms. Clark's actions in the run-up up to the sale/not sale (i.e. 990 year lease) of BC Rail by Mr. Gordon Campbell and friends, one of whom Ms. Clark likes to give bundles of our cash so that she can fly on private jets to exotic and hard to reach (by commercial airline route) locales like Edmonton and Regina.

And with that we finally arrive at a number of matters that get to the real heart of the matter here....

First, this, from Matt Millar's original VanObserver piece about how Ms. Clark once worked for Burrard Communications in her pre-Premier days just before the fine folks from BurrardComm went to work flack-hacking for Enbridge:

Which is how we know that BurrardComm, whose founder is Ms. Clark's former husband Mr. Mark Marissen, did such flack-hacking.

But...

Just who is this John Paul Fraser fellow named in the federal lobbying documents anyway?

And why does J.P. have a monicker that is so similar to that very fine conflict commissioner that we discussed above, but only because Ms. Clark herself indicated that he should make a ruling on the appropriateness of her not having disclosed her association with Burrard, Translink and a subsidiary of RCI, which itself had a business relationship with BurrardComm.

Well, as you may have already surmised, Mr. J.P. Fraser is the son of Mr. P. Fraser who is the above-mentioned conflict commissioner.

****

And what, you may be asking yourself,  is the point of this revisiting of history given that the fact that it has recently been noted that Mr. Fraser's son works for the Premier's government at the Premier's pleasure?

Well...

Firstly, please don't assume that I am in any way impugning anyone for their past business or personal associations.

However, in my opinion at least, the history of the past associations noted above further indicates that the potential for a perception of a conflict of interest for the Conflict Commissioner is very real where investigations into the deeds and actions of Ms. Christy Clark as Premier of British Columbia are concerned.

Not as leader of the Opposition with no decision-making, spending, legislative or contract-writing powers that may, or may not, involve the myriad of big money donors to her political party that has been using said donations, at least in part, to pay her approximately $300,000 over the last six years.

But as Premier.

OK?


_______
And another thing....It looks like some proMedia folks from East of the Rockies are starting to sniff around at this thing...It is my sincere hope that they actually shame the local puffed-up punditry to actually do something....Or, at the very least, just shame them generally.


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This Evening In Clarkland...Let Them Eat (Homemade) Cake!

What's$50KPerYearAmong
FriendsAndInfluentialUnclesVille


Andrew McLeod of the Tyee follows up on that minimum wage deflector spike spin bauble that was thrown into the proMedia maw this morning:

That.

And.

She can see Versailles from her house!

(allegedly)


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This Day In Clarkland...Citizen Warns Speaker Of Contempt of Decency.

WhatTedHughesDidNot
SayVille


From Mr. Shaw of the VSun's twittmachine feed:

From Mr. Shaw's latest piece in the VSun:

...Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond was “highly disrespectful” by releasing a child welfare report on her website last Thursday before the required practice of having the Speaker table it in the legislature, Speaker Linda Reid warned in the house and in a letter Tuesday.

“As an Officer of the Legislature, your decision to proceed with a premature disclosure of this report prior to a formal tabling in the Legislative Assembly was an egregious action, disrespectful and inconsistent with your position’s statutory reporting relationship with the Legislature and a contempt of Parliament,” Reid wrote.

The extraordinary public rebuke didn’t sit well with Turpel-Lafond, who said she tried to get her report – which criticized the ministry’s recent handling of a review by retired deputy Bob Plecas – introduced into the House, only to hear at the last minute it couldn’t be accommodated due to the morning question period schedule...

{snip}

... To complicate matters, someone tipped off the Ministry of Children and Family Development about the sensitive report within minutes of the representative’s office first mentioning the document to the Speaker’s office on Tuesday, April, 26, said Turpel-Lafond. She said that leak could only have come from the Speaker’s office.

“Well, the Ministry of Children and Families director of communications called my office within three minutes and said, ‘What is the report?’ So I don’t know who else would have done it. It’s awkward because there are occasions, and this is one of them, when I need to have a report released,” said Turpel-Lafond...

{snip again}

...“Words like contempt are usually reserved for cases of bribery or treason or serious crimes against the legislature. I’m just trying to do my job and stand up for kids.” (said Turpel-Lafond)...


The header at the top of this post is all mine.


______
What, exactly did Mr. Ted Hughes NOT say back in the days of yore?....Well....This.
Of course, Ron Obvious had something quite different to say more recently...


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This Day In Clarkland...The Auditor General Comments.

What'sALousy$50KPerYearAmongFriendsDonorsAnd
InfluentialUnclesVille


From page three of the Auditor General's report of her audit of compliance and enforcement of the mining sector in British Columbia:

"...We conducted this audit to determine whether  the regulatory compliance and enforcement activities of the Ministry of  Energy and Mines (MEM) and the Ministry of Environment (MoE), pertaining to mining, are protecting the province from significant environmental risks. 

We found almost every one of our expectations for a robust compliance and enforcement program within the MEM and the MoE were not met. 

We found major gaps in resources, planning and tools. As a result, monitoring and inspections of mines were inadequate to ensure mine operators complied with requirements. The ministries have not publicly disclosed the limitations with their compliance and enforcement programs, increasing environmental risks, and government’s ability to protect the environment..."


Every...

Single...

Expectation.

****

Meanwhile....

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At The End Of The Day...

JustBecauseYouDidn'tWriteAboutItDoesn'tMeanIt
Didn'tHappenVille


...Sometimes there just isn't enough time for poli-blogging.

Why?

Well, to be honest, I'm not really sure.

Maybe it's because we have been working pretty hard at getting another paper out the last few weeks. This one has been a bit of a slog because the gradual student who originally did the work has moved on and is now doing his post-doc stint on the other side of the continent. All of which led to a whole lot of Skyping and long distance experiment doing by folks in my lab who became his remote hands after we got the reviews back from the editor. And while I hated those reviews when we first got them, now that there is a light at the end of the tunnel it's hard pretend that they haven't made the work much better.

But that's not really it.

Maybe, instead, it's because the geezers have a couple of rock and roll shows coming up. One will be in a cabin in the woods and one will be in a fancy hotel ballroom....Gosh....I wonder which one will be more fun. Anyway...There are new tunes to be learned which means a bit of frenzy of actual practicing away from the band so that I don't drive the lead guitar genius guy crazy...All joking aside,  really fun part of it all is that Bigger E will be singing with us for both shows.

But that's not really it either.

To be really, really honest I think a wee bit of the ennui has snuck its way into my poli-blogging hideaway.

But not to worry, because I'm pretty sure it will soon pass (as it has done so before).

In the meantime, carry-on and be sure to visit all those sites on the blog-roll over there on the left side of the page that are doing all the good stuff for all the right reasons.

OK?


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Sometimes At The End Of The Day...

...Everybody looks forward to seeing Ms. Irglova on stage with Mr. Hansard again doing their thing.

This time they were in Poland.

______
And, just in case you missed it, when the music starts to crowd out the poli-blogging, feel free to blame Mr. Hansard for absolutely everything.


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My Purple Friend Ian Reid: He Was The Prince Of The Paupers...

...Crowned Downtown At The Beggar's Bash.

Back in dinosaur days, when Lotuslandian poli-blogging was still a (relatively) new and (kinda/sorta) lonely game, Ian Reid and I became pretty well acquainted on-line.

But it wasn't until we got to talking about music and our kids that we really became friends.

Here's what I wrote about all that a few years ago, back when Ian was still managing to fight off the disease that would eventually kill him:

When Ian popped-up here, in the comments, after I started writing about the Casino Industrial Complex that arrived still-borne, but fully-wurlitzered, in the deep, spikey shadows of the devil-horned roof from nowhere, I was a little surprised.

In the ensuing months we corresponded quite a bit, both here in the bloggodome and offline, about what was really going down.

To be absolutely clear about this, even though a lot of the stuff Ian told me was pure gold I was initially wary because he is an old Pol.

And while I am mostly sympathetic to the party that he has worked for over the years, I have come to learn that you can never be too sure when an old Pol might be working you rather than just talking to you.

But all that fell away when Ian began to respond to the stuff I wrote about making music with my kids.

Because both of those things are personal.

And as we kept talking, purely in pixels mind you, it turned out that, while it would appear on the surface that we have very little in common other than politics, we actually do.

Have lots of things in common I mean.

But it was the differences that I became really interested in.

Like how he would tell me proudly about all the crazy, wild and exhilarating adventures that his own, now fully grown, kids are involved in.

This was a real comfort to me given that my own kids are still young enough that it is hard, as much as I would like to, to let them rush headlong straight into their own private Adventurelands.

As for the musical differences.....

Well, those don't really matter.

Except to mention that I have never really been a Bowie fan.

But then I read a recent post from Ian that lets us know about all the Life (and yes, maybe even death) Changes he's been going through for quite some time now.

So.

I decided to go looking for the intersection of Mr. Bowie and all that I hold dear, musically at least.

And I think I found it.

Here you go Ian (and, thanks).....

****

Anyway.

As I should have known, Ian really dug Prince and just about everything else interesting under the musical sun.

Luckily Ian's son Shamus, writing on Ian's old blog, has made sure we all know that now, and why:

...This weekend I spent time with Prince, trying to figure out what he meant to me. I’m writing on this blog, so you might have guessed it comes back to my dad. With Prince, I just lost another piece of him. When I grieve Prince’s loss, I grieve the absence of a conversation with my dad about his life and identity.

My dad was a gateway to the best music. Not just for me, my sisters or the rest of the family, but for his friends, his acquaintances, his readers, anybody he liked even a little bit.

After he died, a friend of mine who worked with him told me he had turned her onto Massive Attack in the nineties. Over a decade her senior and he gave her the inside scoop on one of the greatest bands of her generation. My fake-Uncle Adrian—one of several of my dad’s remarkable close friends from childhood—told me about a visit from my dad while he was studying law in Toronto. Pestered, he finally agreed to close the books and go see some new band dad was excited about. They were called U2.

A year before his death he introduced me to Spiritualized at the Rickshaw in Vancouver, prompting another friend to ask “what’s it like having a dad who’s cooler than you?” It was pretty awesome. Didn’t give me an inferiority complex at all.

Anyone who knew him could probably give you a list of bands he introduced them to that became deeply meaningful to them. Mine includes such diversity as Drive-by Truckers, Beck, Patti Smith, KRS-One (I know, right?), Nirvana, Fela Kuti, Tracy Chapman (joint effort with my mom), Bill Callahan (joint effort with my step-dad), Antony & The Johnsons, Lucinda Williams, Joy Division, Parliament-Funkadelic, and so many more. And, Prince, of course.

My dad turned people on to music like an evangelist turns people on to Jesus. I think he did it for the same reason too. Music saved him. He wrote once on this blog about seeing Van Morrison for the first time on PBS when he was 16. Seeing a pudgy, awkward Irishman, made him realize he—a pudgy, awkward Scot—might have the miseries of his life saved by rock and roll...

****

Now.

If I've said it once I've said it a million times...

It's not the Web or the Tubez or the Apps, or even the ever thickening layer of Pixel Dust that really matters around here.

Instead, it's the people.

OK?


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Trump Takes New York...Start Spreadin' The News.

ButWillItPlayIn
ClevelandVille


Looks like it's not just artists, hipsters, Broadway showgoers and the ultra-rich who are into New York these days (i.e. since primary vote counting came to a conclusion Tuesday night).

Andy Borowitz has the (snark-filled) story in that always homerish and booster-filled rag, 'The New Yorker':

America’s racists, who have long viewed New York with a mixture of hostility, contempt, and fear, are suddenly feeling much more positive about the Empire State, a cross-section of racists confirmed on Tuesday night...

{snipppety doo-dah}

...Improving attitudes about New York were not limited to racists, however, as interviews on Tuesday night revealed a sudden warming toward the state among misogynists, xenophobes, and people who enjoy sucker-punching others in the face.


Imagine that!


______
And, on the flipside....This. 


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More Bullshite In BC Liberal Budgeting Exposed...The Smoothening.

WhenInDoubtDeferDeferAndDeferDebtAgainAgainAndAgain
WhenYouAreNotTooBusyDeletingVille


From Andrew MacLeod's excellent Tyee piece on all the accounting tricks going down at BC Hydro published yesterday:

...(In 2017) BC Hydro will draw down $250 million from a rate-smoothing account, money that it doesn't plan to finish repaying until 2024.

For context, the provincial government has budgeted an overall surplus of $287 million in 2017-2018, which in part depends on receiving $706 million from BC Hydro.

The rate-smoothing money is therefore more than one-third of the amount the government plans to take from the utility in the election year....


And what will we see, hear and read about this, which clearly demonstrates that the Clarklandian  faux balancing of the budget is bogus, from the Lotuslandian proMedia during the election campaign next spring?

My prediction...

Crickets.

(and/or Dean-fried codswallop about the importance of grocery bills and clawback timing)


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This Carbon-Based Day In Clarkland...The Real Filth And The Real Belching.

AllThingsToAll
CarbonEmittersVille


Yesterday, I took umbrage with the following statement from our fine Premier that was uttered at a pro-Frack gas rally in Northeastern British Columbia as reported by Jonny Wakefield in the Alaska Highway News:

“This early start to the fire season is alarming for everyone in the province,” (Premier Christy) Clark told reporters after a speech to LNG supporters from the back of an oilfield crane truck. “I know it’s been an immediate, urgent issue for people in the northeast, but if it’s starting this early here, it’s going to start early everywhere in the province.”

“If there’s any argument for exporting LNG and helping fight climate change, surely it is all around us when we see these fires burning out of control.”

“This is the reality we’re facing today as the planet gets warmer,” she continued, saying climate change leads to dry conditions that exacerbate wildfires. “If there’s any argument for exporting LNG and helping fight climate change, surely it is all around us when we see these fires burning out of control.” ...

{snip}

“The only way China is not going to build those filthy, belching coal plants is if they have a different fuel to power the country. That has to be LNG,” Clark said in a followup interview. “If everyone who is using coal and oil switched to natural gas today, we would be a third less polluting. In one leap.”...


My taking of the umbrage was based on the science of the thing.

Rigourously peer-reviewed science like the following, as published in the top-of the ladder publication 'Nature':

...Assessment of the full impact of abundant gas (obtained by fracturing) on climate change requires an integrated approach to the global energy–economy–climate systems, but the literature has been limited in either its geographic scope or its coverage of greenhouse gases. Here we show that market-driven increases in global supplies of unconventional natural gas do not discernibly reduce the trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions or climate forcing. 

{snip}

...Our results show that although market penetration of globally abundant gas may substantially change the future energy system, it is not necessarily an effective substitute for climate change mitigation policy...

****

Now.

If the science of the thing is not bad enough...

There is also the blatant hypochristy, as Laila noted late last night:

...Some days, I would rather muck out the dirty stalls of a horse ranch and not wade through this kind of muck instead.

Let’s talk about that dirty nasty coal BC LNG is going to save the world from. And why Premier Clark, so clearly motivated to save the world from those “filthy belching coal plants”, isn’t stepping into immediately intervene and help those trying to stop more thermal coal exports overseas out of Surrey Fraser Docks? 

Yes, you read that right. Surrey Fraser Docks and Port of Vancouver are trying to get the courts to drop the challenge against this facility that would see coal ships loaded with thermal coal brought up by train from the US, to ships in the Fraser River. Frankly after reading Clark’s comments above, I’m shocked she isn’t down there protesting herself to stop it! Oh but wait…she’s too busy making sure the Massey Bridge gets built,a project specifically designed to allow large ships to travel up and down the Fraser to ship that dirty coal overseas….

But wait, I haven’t even begun to talk about the mile long trains of thermal coal moved through White Rock,Surrey and Delta daily that US ports won’t ship and has been shipping out of Deltaport for years!...


So.

What's next...

A massive  'Bonfire Of The Carbon Capture Vanities'-type  PR blitzkrieg ghost-written by the life partner of the failed sheep herder?



_______
Please note: North Van's Grumps was also on to the hypocrisy of the thing right out of the gate in the comment threads last night.



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Of Headlines And Obviousness.

There'sNoBamboozlementLikeSelf-Inflicted
BamboozlementVille


So.

Mr. Mason of the Globe has a column up today under the following header:

Alberta, B.C. discuss deal to swap pipeline for electricity.

Except, when you actually read the piece it is neither Notley nor Clark who say anything about this 'swap' deal specifically.

In fact Ms. Notley goes out of her way not to say anything explicit about any deal making.

So who does Mr. Mason rely on for his 'confirmation' of a deal being in the works?

Well....

As you might have guessed...

One of the Clarklandia's most notorious spinmeisters:

...A spokesman for B.C. Premier Christy Clark confirmed that energy talks between the two provinces are under way and agreed that there is renewed optimism around the Kinder Morgan pipeline project, in particular.

Ben Chin, executive director of communications and issues management for Ms. Clark, said that while the five conditions the province has imposed on any pipeline project to B.C. would still have to be met, there is more optimism now that this can occur.

This, too, serves as a change for B.C., which last year came out against Kinder Morgan at the NEB hearings in Vancouver. Mr. Chin said that was not an unequivocal no, but rather a “not yet.” He said the B.C. government understands Alberta’s position regarding an electricity deal; that it would have to come with a pipeline. He said that clean electricity would help its neighbour “brand their product better.”

“If you’re electrifying the northern industrial heartland and are able to say we’re avoiding three to six megatons of greenhouse gas emissions in the manufacturing of this barrel of oil, making it the cleanest or second cleanest or one of the best barrels of oil you can get … does electricity help you make that argument?” Mr. Chin said. “We believe it can.”...


Hmmmmm...

And if Mr. Mason we're to call up Marky Mark and ask him if Enbridge is still the bees knees, just like it was way back in 2005,  would he, Mr. Mason, then write a column about how the governments of Alberta and British Columbia are planning to institute an 'Enbridge Honey Day' festival in Kicking Horse Pass every summer from here to eternity?


_______
And isn't it interesting that a very similar header sits atop a similarly flimsy piece in today's Edmonton Sun...Someone is sure working hard to push the 'aura of inevitability' sound-bite button here...



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