Anti-Keystone ad reveals Canada’s vulnerability to U.S. politics

[CHIMO]

The airing of a jingoistic, misleading and devastating anti-oilpatch, anti-China, anti-Canada ad during Tuesday night’s State of the Union Address marks a turning point of sorts in the battle over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. This is a fight that Canada may lose. The blame, should that occur, will rest squarely with Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Rarely has a policy so critical to a government’s overarching strategy been bungled so spectacularly.

The ad, to be aired on MSNBC before and after President Barack Obama’s address Tuesday, is the handiwork of NextGen Climate Group, an environmental organization led by billionaire anti-oilsands zealot Tom Steyer. Clocking in at just over a minute, it is far and away the most potent piece of propaganda levelled thus far in the Keystone debate, by either side. Applying stark imagery, crafty editing, selective use of facts and a punchy, populist script, it explicitly accuses the Canadian government of being in league with Beijing to “sucker punch” the American heartland.

The spot is blatantly misleading, shamefully tribal, and of course shockingly unfair to the thousands of Albertans and Canadians dedicated to responsible, sustainable development of the oilsands. It declares darkly that “Chinese government-backed interests” have invested $30-billion in Canadian tar sands development, and China just bought one of Canada’s largest producers.” The narrator neglects to mention that total foreign investment in Canadian fossil-fuel energy projects between 2007 and 2013 was about $100 billion, or that the U.S., U.K. and the Netherlands accounted for nearly 35 per cent of this, compared with China’s 28 per cent.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/Anti+Keystone+reveals+Canada+vulnerability+politics/9440681/story.html

Still don't realise that Harper fired all his scientists and took over the jet stream, directing all the cold down into the US. Some smart cookie eh?

[Joe Shlabotnik]

1. Awesome

I'm shocked that such an ad could even make onto a major network, given the dominance of petrodollar fueled, feel-good propaganda we see daily.

[arikara]

2. China is still the biggest investor

This article is no less jingoistic. The tar sands are a blight upon Canada and do not benefit us because we have no national energy policy. All the profits are sucked right out of the country along with the bitumen and we are left with the devastation.

I do agree that it's on Harper.