Monday, February 24, 2020

Jason Kenney and the Teck Frontier Fiasco



For months Jason Kenney has been strutting around like a puffed up mini Mussolini,  bellowing "Trudeau gimme that mine, or else!!!!"

And threatening that Alberta could separate if the Liberal government didn't approve the Teck Frontier project, a massive oil sands mine.

But today you could hear the air hissing out of him, after the project was abandoned, and once again he was made to look like a loser.




For blaming Justin Trudeau for the project's collapse. 

"It is what happens when governments lack the courage to defend the interests of Canadians in the face of a militant minority," Kenney said in an emailed statement, pointing to what he described as weeks of federal indecision on blockades in solidarity with those opposed to a natural gas pipeline proposed by Coastal GasLink in northern B.C.

Just like Andrew Scheer did: 

Even though the company itself did not blame Trudeau. It said it was only too happy to pay a carbon tax. And strongly suggested that politicians like Kenney and Scheer are in denial.

The abrupt decision by Teck Resources to withdraw its application for the Frontier bitumen mine project reveals a truth that politicians like Jason Kenney and other industry boosters continue to deny — that investing large sums of money in Canada’s oil sands no longer makes any financial sense.

They can't seem to see that Teck Resources is just following other Big Oil companies.

In withdrawing its application for Frontier, Teck was following the lead of Shell, ConocoPhillips, Marathon, Total, Koch Industries and other oil companies that in recent years have departed the oilsands, selling off tens of billions of dollars’ worth of investments that they no longer consider financially attractive.

They can't seem to understand that the Tar Sands are dying...



And because the Cons are such grubby oil pimps, they can't understand that they are dying too.

All of which is of course great for Justin Trudeau.

Firstly, he was spared having to rule on the fate of the Teck oil sands, which would have been a lose lose exercise.

Secondly, he can now use the reasons provided by Teck Resources to bolster his own arguments, that Canada needs to do more to fight global warming. And that no project can be approved without a decent climate plan.

Yup, nobody can know what the Teck collapse will mean for the future of Canada's fossil fuel industry. But I think it's safe to say this:

Some are good, some are lucky. 

And some are both....



31 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another sad episode for Elmer Fudd and the Looney Tunes party of Canada in their quest to trounce the wrascally wabbit. It was a perfect set up; non approval would result in western and native ire, approval meant being cast as a shallow climate phony. Burnt toast either way. Then at the last minute along came some of Simon's grumpy old men, rail blockages and the financial wizards managing our pensions and banks were reminded of something they knew for some time. The world is changing and like tobacco, investing in other forms of statistical death is a long term looser. They changed their minds, the wabbit escaped leaving Fudd, Foghorn, Yosemite Sam, Elmyra and other members of the LT party wallowing in the tarry sand.

RT

Jackie Blue said...

The Teck decision that saved Justin/the Liberals from an unwinnable Kobayashi Maru dilemma may or may not have been a favorable side effect of the protests, but it doesn't change the fact that the blockades are nonetheless alienating and angering lots of people who are worried about having access to necessary staples like food, medicine and heat. They will either take out their frustrations through direct action or later on at the ballot box depending on how bad the economy is hit, and then everyone will suffer under the jackboot of a jackass like Toolio or Macho MmmKay. As for this particular situation, from what I gather, there was a growing threat of a Liberal caucus revolt, and/or the possibility of Trudeau/cabinet calling their bluff caused Teck to blink after having seen the writing on the wall.

Whatever, the end justifies the means, and Kenney will whine even louder when the SCoC makes their final ruling on the federal carbon tax with the AB court being a likely outlier. The blockades still need to come down ASAP, and the protesters find a less disruptive method of getting their point across, because the backlash that will ensue if they don't is not going to be pretty.

"Revolution" is a fool's errand, and right now it's helping no one but the "not on my radar" Cons as Trudeau takes the blame for something that he has a limited to nonexistent role in either starting, mitigating or bringing to a conclusion. The Con premiers have poured gasoline on a tire fire and framed Trudeau for arson. But besides Dug, Klanney, and Hulk Horgan, those grumpy old men are still their own worst enemy (particularly considering how they treated the women) and one only hopes they and/or their "solidarity partners," particularly at historically significant locations in Ontario, realize that before it's too late.

Anonymous said...

Kenney's Alberta "win" on the carbon tax must be bittersweet now that Teck is pulling out. Enjoy that while you can Mrs. Kenney because when the SCoC ultimately gets the file and rules, you'll go down in coal fired flames. Blaming JT was expected and is quite simply a pathetic attempt at diversion from his and Scheer's own failings. The tarry tyrants will continue to try and fool their dim-witted following into believing that the tar sands are Alberta's only road to future success while the writing on the wall is screaming in bright neon colored lights that the truth is otherwise.

https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/the-real-betrayal-of-albertans-lifer-politicians-who-wont-tell-them-the-truth/

So instead of planning for and diversifying for the future, the Kenneys and Scheers of the Con party will selfishly continue to lead Alberta down the garden path of destruction until the blame game boomerangs right back at them and ultimately seals their fates and legacies. And Alberta? It's reduced to a have-not ship of fools led there by the rudderless leadership of self-serving Cons with no one left to blame but themselves.
JD

Sixth Estate said...

I could not be happier and I am more than happy to credit Trudeau even if Teck doesn't. Since last year's election nothing has provided me with more unintended hilarity than the gaagle of ignorant, uneducated far-rightists living just east of me prattling on about how the best thing for an UNDIVERSIFIED LANDLOCKED OIL EXPORTER is to separate from all its neighbours and burn every diplomatic bridge it can along the way.

Sixth Estate said...

Stop speaking for the west, please.

Marmalade said...

TMX is Not up and running yet.....oil prices continue to fall and Blockades are popping up all over Canada. Hopefully Canadians are waking up!

Jackie Blue said...

Well, I hate to say I told you so, but... those grumpy old men and their "brothers" played right into the Cons' hands. UNDRIP was already postponed because of this chaos. Now the Cons want a permanent Kenney Kudatah Kibosh, as the alt-left absolutists cry out that reconciliation is dead. Hence the vote of non-confidence being tabled. Stupid blockaders in their blind rage at Trudeau walked right into their trap!

https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2020/02/24/alberta-pushes-to-kill-liberal-plan-to-enshrine-un-declaration-on-indigenous-rights.html

Anonymous said...

The oily ones in Alberta remind me of some heroin junkies. They can't quit their ugly habit even if it kills them or the planet. If only we could send them all to rehab.

Jackie Blue said...

They are waking up, but not in the way you'd hope. Populist extremism on both right and left has taken root in Canada, and everyone who should be working together and picking up their own slack is passing the buck and/or blaming Trudeau. The Cons call him a green communist, while the green communists call him a racist genocidal backstabber, and the media predictably derides him as spineless and incompetent. The rational center is dying, as compromise gets redefined as betrayal, compassion as weakness, diplomacy as speaking with a forked tongue, and aggressiveness as leadership. Only the Sith deal in absolutes, but as I mentioned earlier, "Common Ground" is sadly so 2015.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/teck-frontier-mine-climate-pipeline-carbon-tax-1.5471315

Anonymous said...

I like that analogy. "Hi, I'm Jason and I'm an oilaholic."
JD

Jackie Blue said...

I feel sick because I just saw Nanos at C 36 L 33. 5 point gain in a month. I told you so. I told you Black Lives Matter swung the pendulum to Trump and the race riots of the '60s swung the pendulum to Nixon. What's been happening over the past few weeks causing the Liberals to take a hit? Trudeau derangement syndrome on both sides has poisoned this country. Fuck Kenney, fuck Scheer and fuck the solidarity saboteurs. He tries so damn hard and gets spat in the face. He should light up a joint, pour gasoline on the benches and burn Parliament down. Populist assholes get the government they deserve.

Anonymous said...

If you, Simon and the others are part of the rational center, I'd hate to see what the non-rational ones are like.

Jackie Blue said...

The rational center I was referring to, and so too Aaron Wherry in that column, was the Liberal party and Trudeau. But if all you want is to needle on an Internet comments board with snark, I guess that's your right. Warning people about the law of unintended consequences isn't irrational, and the effects are already bearing fruit. The Cons have gained 5 points in the polls, bizarrely pulling the left-wing parties and not the Liberals, which to me demonstrates a hard populist swing of the pendulum. 2/3 of Canadians say they want police to move in and shut things down, a gain of 11 points since last week alone. What does this show but a cleave of opinion and a backlash of rage.

Sabotaging critical infrastructure and shouting down people who say you are harming your own cause as being "racists" is what's irrational. But so is cracking skulls on day 1. Yet those seem to be the only options in the offering because nuance and "Common Ground" has become passé. Perhaps "reconciliation" is dead, not just between the white folks and the First Nations but the ideological and political extremes. But if getting frustrated trying to communicate facts through the cacophonous din makes me, Simon, or Justin Trudeau irrational, then so be it. No one believed Cassandra, and prophets are rarely welcome in their own house.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps in the next episode of the Looney Tune unreality series, Elmira will don a new shade of lipstick, Foghorn will convince a few more the sky is falling and Fudd will mount a wabbit catcher on his limo to clear the tracks but the whole s**t show is likely to be cancelled when the reality of covid 19 bites. Just perhaps people will be thankful our health care system was not trashed, that there are still dedicated health care workers willing to put their lives on the line and that there is a real scientific community to address the issue. Perhaps even some will wonder why the government and media spent so much time promoting fiction amplified conflict when there was more than enough reality to go around. Hope I am wrong but the odds of covid 19 becoming a major disrupter are slowly moving in the wrong direction.

RT

Anonymous said...

The blockades are part of an attempt by the cons to make the country appear ungovernable, to which they are the solution. They will naturally support the hereditary dictators, because it is much easier to deal with one small self appointed leadership who will intimidate the rest, than actual leaders chosen by those they lead. They set a lot of this in motion with their mole Jody at the highest levels of the government, whose husband is already running around contracts in hand for the very projects currently being "protested".

You can tell the non Indigenous protesters are just paid actors. Why else would they disrupt the one thing that actually greatly reduces our carbon footprint, public transit?

Jackie Blue said...

Does ANYONE else remember that there was a raid on the camp in January of 2019 and then Jody's tantrum only a month later??? I have a whole folder of articles and screenshots connecting this timeline. The IDU Cons with help from JWR, her Fraser Institute hubby, some useful idiots proclaiming themselves as "progressives" caping for the grumpy old men, have weaponized the Indigenous issue as a coordinated attack upon Trudeau.

This rat's nest is the aftermath of, or sequel to, SNC. The timing is even uncanny: it's an anniversary attack. I'm thinking of writing a book about the Koch/Fraser plot against Trudeau that uses the native-rights issue as a populist cudgel. Maybe I'll call it Money and the Indian Vote. Keep an eye out. You heard it here first.

lagatta à montréal said...

Catherine Dorion, MNA Québec solidaire, called the "Third link" a "line of coke". Each their own drug. We have our own anti-environmental nuts, especially the hate radios from Québec City and hate columnists such as Richard Martineau at Journal de Montréal (a tabloid).

Simon said...

Hi RT....Yes, I could not have hoped for a finer fable. The oil pimps and the crazy old Trudeau haters wailed like banshees, and the market reared up on its hind legs and killed the doomed project. The writing has been on the wall for years but people like Scheer and Kenney are too dumb or too bought to see it...

Simon said...

Hi Jackie....I warned that those railway blockades will do enormous damage to the social fabric of this country. For that I was called a racist by some dirty old men, even though I have always supported the indigenous cause, and even though, between you and me, my first boyfriend was a Mohawk from the Oka area. Honestly, this country is turning into a madhouse...

Simon said...

Hi JD....Yes, I read and enjoyed that Maclean's story, for it couldn't be more True. The bastard Kenney and his filthy Cons have betrayed Alberta. The province has lost 70,000 jobs since he took over, and it will lose many more unless it can diversify its economy. If the dumb Con supporters in that province don't get the message now, they never will....

Simon said...

Hi Sixth Estate...l am conflicted. On the one hand I hate to see the scummy Cons trying to create a fake separatist issue based on greed alone. On the other hand like you, I find wannabe separatists like Rempel absolutely hilarious. I really need to write something about the "Buffalo Republic." 😉

Simon said...

Hi Marmalade....We don't need rail blockades to get Canadians to respect native rights or realize that dirty oil has no future. We just need good old Canadian compromise, and common sense....

Simon said...

Hi Jackie....As I've said all along, ignoring court orders, and acting like goons, is only going to damage the indigenous cause. There was a lot of good will for that indigenous cause, but I can feel it slipping away and that should depress us all....

Simon said...

Hi anon@ 4:42PM... Actually Con polls show that Jackie and Inand others are far closer to the rational centre than any of you far right extremists.. You are scum, you are crazy, and we are going to defeat you...☠

Simon said...

Hi Jackie....Maybe he should light up a joint, but neither he nor anyone else should do anything to pour gasoline on the flames. Eventually the Cons and the native terrorists who threaten this country, will be brought down by their own reckless behaviour...

Simon said...

Hi RT...Needless to say I am far more concerned by our state of readiness for the coronavirus than I am by the games the Cons and some indigenous extremists are playing. And in that regard I've got bad news. Con cuts to our health services have reduced our ability to deal with a massive pandemic and endangered the lives of the sick and those who must care for them. A lot of Canadians could die because of those cuts, and I will make sure they are all held accountable...

Simon said...

Hi anon@ 9:29 PM....Yes, it's an old fascist trick. Render a country ungovernable and then claim that only they can restore law and order. And you make another very good point. Why are all those so called "earth defenders" disrupting public transit, when it's one of the best ways to reduce our carbon footprint? It really makes you wonder whether some of them are on the Con payroll....

Anonymous said...

The appeal to tradition reminds me of a conversation I had many years ago with a guy who wanted me to think Soviet communism was better. I said but it is a dictatorship and we have freedom here and the vote. He argued that the dictators are highly qualified to run the country (which in some cases can be true) and can follow a plan. Plus not having a vote gives you freedom from having to worry about things like how the country is run.

Sort of like sitting on a bus and let the driver run the bus. Of course the bus doors don't have barbed wire and the driver does not shoot you if you decide to get off the bus.

Steve said...

the stone age did not end because they ran out of stone projects to invest in

Anonymous said...

Bit OT. And now Global is following CBCs lead with not allowing commentary on indigenous issues. What an absurd situation for Canada. For CBC it should be part of their mandate. My solution is contract that moderation over to APTN.

Simon said...

Hi anon....There is a strong authoritarian streak in all human societies, and according to polls is getting stronger even in Canada. Trump's behaviour is obviously fanning those flames, but the reasons for them are complex. I sometimes believe that what we need is a progressive dictator to force through the changes needed to green our society. However, only if I can apply for the job....😎