Commentary
There is distinct room for relief and even satisfaction that the federal government is apparently prepared to encourage the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline. It is apparently also prepared to lift the tanker ban on the West Coast to facilitate Alberta oil and gas exports, even though it may need to rely on opposition MPs to do so.
The Sword of Damocles that has been hanging over the country, politically and economically, has been whether Prime Minister Mark Carney has sufficiently outgrown his previous strict adherence to climate change doomsday scenarios, to pursue economic growth in the petroleum industry and bank the mounting fires of Alberta separatism in doing so….