Keystone failure on Trudeau: Harder
By Tim Kalinowski on January 23, 2021.
Herald photo by Ian Martens
Lethbridge Member of Parliament Rachael Harder says the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline represents a failure in leadership for Trudeau, saying the Conservatives continue to see energy's importance in Canada. @IMartensHeraldLETHBRIDGE HERALDtkalinowski@lethbridgeherald.com
Lethbridge Member of Parliament Rachael Harder says the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline represents a failure in leadership for Prime Minister Trudeau, but stopped short of endorsing punitive sanctions against the United States over the decision – despite calls to do so from Premier Jason Kenney.
“Of course Mr. Kenney has a responsibility to defend Alberta,” states Harder when asked what the Conservative Party of Canada would do about the U.S. decision if it were in government.
“And, of course, I wish him all the best in his endeavours in doing that. At the federal level, our responsibility is to put forward a grand vision for the entire country from coast to coast. And we have stated over and over again, and we continue to stand by, our position: and that is, energy has a place in this country. It is the greatest contributor to our GDP, and it will continue to be so for quite some time.
“Let’s face it,” she added, “natural resources, and in particular energy, is the lifeblood of this country. It is the fuel to life. It is what allows us to drive our vehicles, go to work and heat our homes. It is out of petroleum products that we are able to create shoes and glasses, and chairs, and desks, and computers and phones. Let’s not kid ourselves; we need the energy sector. And as the Conservative Party of Canada, we are going to do all we can to protect the energy sector, and to protect those who work in the sector.”
While acknowledging the ultimate decision for cancelling the pipeline’s expansion into Canada rests with President Joe Biden, who was clear on the campaign trail for the past year on what he would do on this issue if elected, Harder says Trudeau should have done more to advance this cause with Biden prior to the president’s inauguration.
“It’s a huge blow to Canadians,” Harder states.
“It is very sad. I would even go so far as to say it is an insult. It is extremely devastating to the nation of Canada. In particular, we are talking about people and their livelihoods, their jobs, but we are also talking about an industry which supports this country from coast to coast. And it is an industry we have, traditionally, been quite proud of. Unfortunately, the prime minister did absolutely nothing to advocate for Canadians. And it is absolutely shameful.”
“The prime minister has said in the past that he supports the energy sector,” she adds, “and he even took taxpayer money and put it toward the TMX, but then when he had an opportunity (prior to the inauguration) to fight for the industry, when he had an opportunity to fight for Canadians, he didn’t even do so much as pick up the phone and call, at the time, President-Elect Biden.”
Harder says the failure to get this pipeline built and approved shows how little effort, in her opinion, the prime minister put into this file.
“He simply doesn’t care about Canadian energy workers, and the well-being of this country; and, in particular, Western Canada,” she states. “The United States of America are our largest trading partner, and we should do all we can to maintain a positive relationship with them. And that means that, at times, in order to protect that relationship, in order to advance that relationship, you have difficult conversations. And Trudeau just fails to have a spine to do that, and it’s Canadians who are, ultimately, put on the hook.”
On a side note, Harder says further evidence for the questionable decision-making of the prime minister is the fiasco surrounding his hand-picked, now former, Governor General Julie Payette, who resigned under a cloud of scandal earlier this week after only three years as Canada’s vice-regal.
“In 2012 there was a process put in place by which a non-partisan group would choose the GG,” she says. “And it would be an appointment process that wouldn’t involve partisan politics. That is great, and it should have been upheld. Unfortunately, Trudeau decided to snub that process, and went ahead and appointed a friend. So he put his friend in place, and his friend failed miserably, but that responsibility rests on the shoulders of Trudeau. Because as the prime minister, he decided to ignore the process that was previously in place.”
Harder says Trudeau’s choice of Payette for Governor General was a “massive mistake” pretty much from the beginning.
“It’s colossal in nature,” she states, “it is extremely sad, and, quite frankly, it’s embarrassing.”
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So easy for the virgin giraffe to throw popcorn from the cheap seats. Kenny and YOUR UCP are the failure here , Rache
When I read your comments Rachael on any theme, it’s always the same. Bash Trudeau and blame him for everything that goes wrong. This may work for your blind uniformed followers but it just shows me what an unpleasant person you really are. Jason Kenney as our UCP leader, is totally to blame for sinking 1.6 billon into a dead project with the only hope being that Donald Trump would get re-elected. Myself personally, I would rather we had to live in semi-poverty than have to put up with another 4 years of “The Donald” running the United States. When you would rather have a corrupt, lying person running the country south of our border so you could have a pipeline operational, it shows a lot about your moral character. Jason Kenney whom you obviously back, never owns up to anything and blames others every time. Whenever the next election is called, I hope your great leader Erin O’Toole doesn’t end out our next Prime Minister. All the good old boys from Harper’s bunch are slowly making inroads. At least I have some respect for Stephen Harper. Just my opinion.
What is “colossal in nature” here, and “quite frankly…embarrassing” is Ms. Harder’s mantra repeated ad nauseam.
A few things come to mind. If Ms. Harder has such a love affair with the O & G industry:
Where is Ms. Harder’s public lobbying of the Premier of Alberta to build refineries in this province capable of handling bitumen?
How does Ms. Harder interpret Canada’s legal and binding commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement? What is preventing Ms. Harder from being publicly pro-active so that Canada can achieve these goals?
“The Canadian government is at a crossroads: it could either continue with the slow implementation of an inadequate climate plan, or adopt a recovery package that accelerates the transition to a zero emissions future. During the last election (October 2019), the government made a number of promises to scale up climate action, including exceeding the country’s 2030 NDC target and achieving net zero emissions by 2050, but has done little to deliver on this in the intervening months.”
https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/canada/
Is Ms. Harder aware that her constituency is located in an area extremely vulnerable to climate change? Does Ms. Harder understand that the forces of nature have no respect for partisanship?
“The Canadian Prairies are recognized internationally as a potential climate change “hotspot” due to their relatively high latitude and location in the middle of the continent. In the coming decades, the Prairie’s summers are projected to become warmer and drier and winters and springs warmer and wetter. Precipitation is likely to be characterized by greater variability and uncertainty from year to year, and within each year. Rapid swings between wet and dry conditions could become more common. Extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, floods and intense storms are projected to increase in intensity and frequency. Overall, the climate is going to become even more variable and less predictable.”
https://www.prairiesrac.com/climate-impacts/
Where is Ms. Harder’s public support for the transitioning to a lower carbon economy? Has Ms. Harder ever spoken with anyone at Iron and Earth to learn how they are advocating for and training individuals who are transitioning from the O & G sector for various reasons?
https://www.ironandearth.org/prosperous_transition_plan
The opportunities for Ms. Harder to truly understand the issues together with diligently representing her constituents rather than spewing the party line are many. Unfortunately, an old adage appears to still be true:
Those who can’t dance blame it on the music.
I wonder if our Dear Leader consulted with the Prime Minister about KXL before he rolled the dice? It seems to me that if you blame someone, they should have been involved.
And I wonder if our MP, in her wisdom, suggested to anyone that they consult with Biden before they gambled the money. She seems to have a lot of opinions after the fact.
It just seems to me that it was Kenney’s decision, and he should take responsibility. If he needs help from Trudeau to clean up his mess he should be nice about it.
And then there is the elephant in the room, as IMO has sagely outlined.
Commenters, like the NDP, are not doing their homework, shooting from the lip with no facts is a problem. Harder at least gave it a shot.
Keystone XL’s demise and why!
First of all I can tell you this has absolutely nothing to do with saving the planet.
So why did Biden block XL? One of the Democratic Parties biggest contributors is the “Oracle of Omaha” Warren Buffet who owns the Berkshire Hathaway Group.
PROCOR the rail car company that produces the rail cars necessary to carry crude was owned by a Canadian Oakville Company until 2002. It was purchased by a company called Union Tank Car out of Louisiana, guess who owns Union Tank Car? Warren Buffets Bershire Hathaway.
What rail line will carry these now fully loaded rail cars of Oilsands Crude? BNSF is Burlington Northern Santa Fe, LLC. out of Fort Worth Texas. Care to guess who owns BNSF? Starts with Warren and ends with Buffet?
Oilsands Crude will always be sent to a small group of Refineries because of it’s high Sulphur content. Care to guess who owns the Refineries? Do you need a hint?
Timing? Biden suddenly decide he would block XL in August 2020 (formal announcement) Which strangely coincided with Warren Buffets purchase (deal closed August 20 2020 ) of many of the Oil and Gas lines that run from “Buffet Refineries” to the Gulf Coast.
So Alberta lost the XL for one reason and one reason only. It was to placate the Democrats Largest Contributor and I can assure you, rail car delivery of Crude does not save the planet!
Meanwhile Biden gets to look like a Planet Saver while sticking it to Canada and Alberta. Trudeau loves the idea because it once again “sticks it to Alberta and Kenney” and fits his agenda to a Tee!
The Alberta NDP wants to remind Alberta who is “defending Albertans”! The NDP insists its them, perhaps in some cases, but they are 100% wrong on this one!
Ottawa will do nothing to assist Albertans, because they have their NDP lapdog willing to do their bidding for them!(Which is in this case to beat Alberta Down) We have no “United Front in Alberta”! Why? The NDP decided Albertan’s “did not need ONE VOICE and to stand with Albertan’s”. All they had to do was 3 minutes of research! They will soon realize they will be on the wrong side of history and have abandoned Albertans in their time of greatest need!
Killing XL was a Biden/Buffet Business Deal, nothing else! They successfully duped the Alberta NDP, Trudeau, and some of the commenters here, in the “first of many Buy America Deals”
They still get the oil, but with higher profits and the pipeline and Alberta jobs get the shaft!
This headline has to be changed “Biden pledged to work with Canada on ‘Buy American’ during call with Trudeau, official says. TOO “Biden pledged to work Canada” on ‘Buy American’ during call with Trudeau, official says. We just got “worked” and Mr Dressup smiled all the way through it! https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-biden-keystone-first-call-1.5883705
You hit the nail on the head Dennis. Bravo for doing your research. This was a purely profit, business and political driven decision by both Biden and Buffet. Too bad the Harder haters are blinded by their own personal political and anti-oil ideologies which prevents them from seeing or recognizing the truth of this issue. Not a Harder comment goes by without seeing the usual triggered, pompous and arrogant know-it-alls ranting their typical anti-oil and anti-conservative sermons from their keyboard pulpits. Intolerance and closed mindedness will do that. I would also add that this also fits right into the Trudeau/Butts environmental and anti-oil ideology. I doubt that this duo wanted Keystone to succeed and this fits right into Trudeau’s green strategy without making him look like the bad guy.Keystone will now fizzle into the depths of history and Elizabeth May is popping champagne corks and on a serious bender.
Dakota said:
Not a Harder comment goes by without seeing the usual triggered, pompous and arrogant know-it-alls ranting their typical anti-oil and anti-conservative sermons from their keyboard pulpits. Intolerance and closed mindedness will do that.
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The Canadian and U.S. political system is ALL about divisiveness. These type of political systems are archaic and corrupt.
For a certain group on this forum, everything Harder says is wrong, but everything Shannon Philips says is always right.
I don’t support any of these political parties or their mp’s. I’m more of a Libertarian and/or Direct Democracy kind of guy (true freedom). However, agree with her point of view or not, but Harder is an MP that actually works to appease her constituents. That’s a rarity in this erroneously titled “Democracy”, but a positive none-the-less.
Would it be wrong to imagine you in a furry, horned headpiece?
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So, because I know oil will be used for the next 30 years and, I know that the oil that was destined for a pipeline that is now shutdown, and will be substituted with a Democrat supporters Rail System, I am somehow a Terrorist?
The problem with you Fescue, there is always a time to “oppose for opposition sake” but there are no times when a unified voice is a stance that must be taken.
If anyone here believes that Trudeau even bothered to mention XL to Biden they are sadly mistaken because Trudeau watches polls. He knows if not a UCP in power next term it will be an NDP, so he has no aspirations of a magic Liberal win in Alberta. So if the NDP lapdog wishes to do his bidding and draw attention away from, the man with no spine, then it truly works for him.
Phillips and Notley get to keep digging at Kenney, who in most cases (not this one) deserve it, and Trudeau gets to see no “Unified Voice” in Alberta, so ignores XL.
Trudeau has already demonstrated that he is far more interested in polls then running a country. How do you punish the US for stopping a pipeline when you could not even bypass Quebec’s arrogance with Energy East, because of your single focus of “is it good for my re-election”?
But then he would have to go organic and that might be just one bridge too far :>
Dennis Bremner
Do you actually believe all the conspiracy gibberish you posted?
We’ve watched this pipeline be opposed by everyone from ranchers, through First Nations and on to state governors for 13 YEARS.
It was cancelled by Obama and Biden was the VP at the time.
Biden said he would cancel – he did.
Kenney was a fool to bet on Trump getting a second term and not even considering why no private investor was stepping in to backstop TC and KXL.
Will Cons EVER face reality?
Its not even close to gibberish. Buffet is railing crude south today, has been since the delay. So Biden/Democrats would not consider taking the business from him. Obama’s biggest contributor was Buffet, so the refusal to finish XL continues as the Democrats continue to grease their largest contributor.
What is “gibberish” is this is being done to “save the planet” thats the true “gibberish!
So you do believe the most tortured explanation is the best.
Reds under the Bed!
No wonder we all have to suffer through Kenney’s incompetence, from War Rooms to spending billions on the continent’s most hated pipeline – the base demands it.
Sad!
But at least we can export the oil on rail cars, right, because the NDP bought & Kenney kept …. oh, wait.
I suppose that’s Buffet and Trudeau’s fault as well …. to line pockets, something something Soros something.
Dennis you are entitled to your opinion as am I. As I have stated before elsewhere, I don’t belong or tie myself to any one party. I look at people. I get tired of Kenney and Rachael just throwing the blame at Justin Trudeau for everything bad that happens. Shannon Phillips is also guilty of this, bashing the UCP. I noticed she has softened somewhat so I think someone had a talk with her. Now, Rachael Notley in my opinion is a classy lady and I like her because of the way she handles herself, not because she is NDP. I also liked Ralph Kline because he was straight forward no B.S. kind of guy. I have voted for the PC’s, the Liberals and the NDP in the past. I vote for leaders, not parties.
My point is and was, we had one chance to produce a Unified Voice that would then be an Alberta Position, one that could be taken en masse to Trudeau. We did not do it, and its now officially dead because the Alberta NDP chose to give Trudeau a voice in Alberta.
Why? to oppose for opposing sake. The Alberta NDP could have easily come out against the cancellation, then after we watched the weak kneed Ottawa Politicians pay lip service to the deal, then criticize Kenney. Pretty easy, but, they decided to flap their gums first, and think later.
Don’t get me wrong, Kenney has turned out to be a useless Premier. He should have been tossed as leader months ago, but those who would toss, are equally as useless. But, their are times in ones political life where you must speak as ONE and drop the partisan rant. The NDP chose to rant, rathen then speak as ONE!
So what you now have is a pipeline to nowhere that will not have the support of Trudeau to “bendy it” East because he does not want to pee off Quebec. He won’t stand up to Biden! He can’t try to hold Biden financially responsible for anything because he did not do so with “The Nation of Quebec”. So when and if Pipelines 3 is suddenly shut down, Ontario will find itself looking for Oil/gas from the Saudii’s/Venezuelans as well, just like Quebec does now.
If 3 is shutdown, it will be too late to develop anything as a Nation, and Mr Spineless will pull the Golly Gee, not my fault, hooda seen that coming! Duh, anyone with a brain!
None of this makes Harders Rant right, but at least she got the conversation going in the right direction. Who for sure is wrong? The NDP and the voice we presented to Trudeau at the 11th hour, it took him completely OFF the hook!
Welcome to the New Canada!
The blame Trudeau theme from Cons is getting tiresome.
Did they blame Harper when Obama cancelled the same pipeline?
And Harder wants our PM to interfere in a foreign election by calling up one of the parties and bending their ear on this or that topic?
Kenney bet Trump would get a second term and foolishly poured billions into a pipeline the Democrats were clear they would cancel.
Harder is not bright, but she does push the Con line with enthusiasm. This reads like she wrote it and handed it to the reporter who then typed it up for us.
The people who don’t care about Energy Workers are the fools in the UCP who just made a bad bet with taxpayers money on a dog that was never going to hunt.
That money could have been FAR better spent on retraining personel in sectors that are BOUND to grow.
Oilsands Oil is not EVER going to make a lot of profit. And should not be extracted in any “growth based” method.
Even if the boneheads pushing for it to be shipped across the ocean to Asia get their way (PS. Another bloody stupid idea).
What needs to happen is the UCP needs to stop trying to hide the plain fact they are sell-outs. Using OUR money in their vain attempts to satisfy their Overlords in the Corporate Sector.
Oh and PS: The UCP can screw off trying to poison our watersheds with Selenium from their coal mining scheme.
What a bunch of easily seen through clowns.