Category: Canadian Politics

Polar bears to die from harmless trace gas and hail of hot lead, but mostly hail of hot lead

Richard Branson and Bo Derek have teamed up to save Canada’s polar bears from global warming:

Beauty Bo Derek and billionaire Richard Branson have joined forces to save Canada’s polar bear population from extinction. But the job won’t get done unless individuals harness their power to bring about change, according to actress Derek. …”Right now there’s such a debate on climate change — who is responsible, the science of it. There’s a lot of work to be done and I realize that. But in the meantime we must save polar bears and sharks,” Derek said.

If Bo really wanted to save polar bears, she’d quit worrying about a harmless trace gas and concentrate her efforts on pesky Chinese hunters:
CHINA’S thrill-seeking nouveau riche are being offered a $75,000 trip hunting down endangered polar bears. The hefty price tag for the 10-day expedition across the polar ice pack in Canada includes the services of a taxidermist, who turns the trophy specimens into rugs for the hunters’ living rooms.
Harking back to an era when the immediate response to a sighting of an endangered species was to bag it for posterity before heading back to the tent for a gin & tonic and damned good mustache waxing, the owner of the Beijing-based I Love Hunting Club said:
“If you believe the ice caps are melting as some claim, these bears are going to die anyway, so you may as well hunt them.”

Global warming probably isn’t much of a problem for Ursus Maritimus, but the incoming hail of Chinese lead is going to leave a mark.

Greenpeace an ‘extremist threat’ to Canada

Canada’s security agency CSIS and the RCMP have classified Greenpeace and Peta as ‘extremist threats’:

The documents single out People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and Greenpeace as among worrisome “multi issue extremist” groups, a category “described as activist groups, indigenous groups, environmentalists and others who are publicly critical of government policy.”

As the group mentioned most often in the obtained documents, the paper says Greenpeace activists were among those targeting “critical infrastructure,” a definition that expanded over time from energy production facilities to corporate symbols such as the Royal Bank of Canada.

“Domestic extremists maintain the intent and capability to carry out attacks against property in Canada,” said the intelligence documents. “Given the use of direct action tactics by domestic extremists, the threat of serious violence cannot be discounted.”

The research paper notes many left-wing groups that use direct-action tactics — such as protests and publicity stunts — came to be seen as potential threats.

Environment Minister Joe Oliver recently called out radical greens for their anti-Canadian activities, and ForestEthics say they were called an ‘enemy of the people of Canada’ by the someone in Prime Minister’s Office.

The news that CSIS and the RCMP have their eye on Greenpeace and Peta, among others, is another signal that in the Big Green Fight, Canada is ready to go ten rounds.

I wonder what’ll happen next time Greenpeace decides to climb something that doesn’t belong to them?

Glacier Discovery Walk approved

Jasper Park, in Alberta’s Rockie Mountains is to get a new attraction, the ‘Glacier Walk’:

“Glacier Discovery Walk” consists of a 400-metre trail with a glass-floored observation deck extending 30 metres into the Sunwapta Valley near Highway 93.

..

The project was approved over the objections of environmentalists who think the walk might upset sheep, or something:

“The truth is we don’t know a lot about what the impacts to wildlife like mountain goats or big horned sheep will be…we know they travel through the park and we know they get threatened by things that are above them and we believe this type of threat has not been fully assessed.”

The site of the Walk, the Columbia Icefields, is a place where the awesome power and beauty of the natural world is raw and rugged. You’d think greens would support a project that gets people close to the glaciers they’re always trying to save.

Perhaps they’re worried the glacier might start going the wrong way and upset their fundraising.

Oil for Pandas

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper traveled to China this week, and scored pretty big:

Oil & Uranium trade - $billions

Two fluffy pandas - $1 million per year

gotcha

Upsetting hippies and Peta in one trip - Priceless

Canada’s conservative majority government recently called radical greens ‘an enemy of the people of Canada‘ and promised to sell its oil to China when President Obama passed on the Keystone XL pipeline project. The only thing they could do to get the eco-set in even more of an uproar would be if they wore seal fur to support the annual hunt. Oh, wait.

Oil for Pandas

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper traveled to China this week, and scored pretty big:

Oil & Uranium trade - $billions

Two fluffy pandas - $1 million per year

gotcha

Upsetting hippies and Peta in one trip - Priceless

Canada’s conservative majority government recently called radical greens ‘an enemy of the people of Canada‘ and promised to sell its oil to China when President Obama passed on the Keystone XL pipeline project. The only thing they could do to get the eco-set in even more of an uproar would be if they wore seal fur to support the annual hunt. Oh, wait.

Greens in the money

Canada’s government has been talking tough about greens and their antics to delay big energy projects and inhibit the country’s ability to exploit its natural resources.

Joe Oliver, the natural resources minister wrote a tough letter and then it was leaked that the Prime Minister’s Office may be calling hippies an ‘enemy of the people of Canada.” All good red meat for folks who think global warming is a crock and that energy should be both abundant and cheap.

But the tough talk has turned out to be a good thing for the greens, as they report fund-raising is through the roof:

Environmental groups involved in the debate over Enbridge Inc.’s Northern Gateway oilsands pipeline to the west coast report that donations have soared in recent weeks — especially after Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said U.S.-funded environmentalists and jet-setting celebrities are trying to hijack the regulatory hearings.

“We’ve seen an unprecedented surge of support,” said Emma Gilchrist of the Dogwood Initiative, a B.C.-based group which has received $12,000 in unsolicited donations since Oliver’s letter. “We’ve got checks that say, in the memo section, ‘Thanks to Joe Oliver.”‘

The Sierra Club warned its supporters in December that it could be a target during the Conservative government’s upcoming review of charitable status. “We got 100 per cent more than we hoped for,” said director John Bennett.

This is good news, oddly enough. Now that radical green groups have demonstrated that they are able to raise enough money to keep them in patchouli and lentil soup, they won’t be needing any tax-payer cash.

It’s rule 4 of Bayonetism:

4. Non-Governmental Organizations receive no tax-payer funds, ever. It’s the ‘Non’ part of being an NGO, see? If you don’t like it, go hug a tree.

ForestEthics “an enemy of the people of Canada”

ForestEthics, the radical environmental group that persuades global businesses to boycott and condemn Canadian oil, is in the midst of an green-on-green blow-up that may see them defunded.

Andrew Frank was communications adviser at ForestEthics until Monday, when he was fired before he could go public with news that Tides Canada may pull financial support for ForestEthics, at the urging of the Canadian government:

In a sworn affidavit released Tuesday to The Canadian Press, Andrew Frank says he was told by his supervisor at ForestEthics that a PMO official had referred to their organization as an “enemy of the state.” The affidavit describes how staff were told their jobs were at risk after the official told Tides Canada, which supports the work of ForestEthics, that the government would “take down” all of the agency’s projects unless it cut ForestEthics loose.

Both the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) and Tides Canada dispute Frank’s version of events.

Andrew MacDougall, spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office, said none of the statements attributed to the government is accurate. “The Prime Minister’s Office denies making any of the allegations or saying any of the things that are outlined in that statement,” he said. He would not comment when asked if either Tides Canada or ForestEthics had been targeted by the government.

In a release, [Tides CEO] McMillan said he wouldn’t comment on Frank’s affidavit other than to say “his account of our conversations with government is inaccurate.”

ForestEthics has targeted Canada and persuaded businesses like Whole Foods, Chiquita and many others to boycott Albertan oil. They are actively involved in disruptive tactics to delay the Northern Gateway pipeline project and celebrated the Obama Keystone XL decision.

In short, everything ForestEthics does is anti-Canada and with the intent to cause harm to the Canadian economy by denying it the ability to exploit its natural resources. Which makes the description of the group as ‘an enemy of the people of Canada’ pretty much appropriate.

In the past, ForestEthics and other anti-Canada radicals like Greenpeace and the WWF would have gotten away with it. But the Stephen Harper government has shown it is not prepared to have sand kicked in its face, it’s going to get up and go toe-to-toe with the angry hippies.

Even worse for the anti-energy greens, the people have had enough too and are punishing companies that malign Canada. Just ask Chiquita how their PR is in Canada these days.

A telling comment from ForestEthics shows that they are victims of their own success:

ForestEthics spokeswoman Valerie Langer said the group wouldn’t comment on the accuracy of Frank’s account. She did confirm that staff had been warned about a funding crunch. “A lot of donors are getting scared that their giving to organizations will result in reprisals,” she said. “Because of this it’s made for a very uncertain outlook.

Canada bashing was easy for greens in the past, but now we’ve got a government unafraid to take the fight to them.

Stay tuned, this is going to be fun to watch.

Canada’s big green fight

Canada is under attack.

At the dawn of the 21st century a new political regime has transformed Canada from global hero – once standing up for peace, people, and nature – to global criminal, plunging into war, eroding civil rights, and destroying environments.

A sustained negative public relations war is being waged against the Great White North by the green movement. At this moment in time, Canada terrifies the greens because it is no longer afraid to tell the truth about global warming, the anti-energy radicals of the green movement and the very real global demand for oil. In the process, Canada could bring down the international house of cards the greens have constructed.

In the children’s story the Emperor’s New Clothes, everything goes swimmingly for the swindlers and toadies around the Emperor until some pesky kid in the crowd shouted the obvious truth that the big man was, in fact, letting it all hang out.

Canada is that kid.

One look at its recent record is enough to see that Canada is serious:

For once, an influential western nation is pushing back against the green agenda, which forces activists to play defense, and they don’t like it.

Two things happened that changed the way Canada thinks and talks about energy. The first was the 2011 election which elevated Prime Minister Harper’s government from a minority to a majority. It took five years before the majority was won but on the journey, in 2008, the opposition imploded on a radical green agenda that was overwhelming rejected by Canadians.

The second event was the framing of Canada’s oil sands as ‘Ethical Oil’. Ezra Levant coined the term in a book about how Canada is a better choice from to buy oil for many reasons, but mostly because it’s not a stone-age thugocracy. That changed the tone of the debate forever. Stop anyone in the street and ask them if they prefer to buy oil from Canada, or Saudi Arabia. Greens hate that.

And right now, greens hate Canada for talking common sense on environmental and energy policy. Australia recently enacted a carbon tax, and its leaders expected the world to follow them. No-one has. Greens fear it will be Canada that proves to be the example followed by other nations, which is why the PR war is being waged.

Canada has a nice guy image in the world, but underneath that affable smile is a tough-as-nails attitude. Greens may be surprised, but in the end Canada will win this battle and knock them onto their collective arses. And then offer them a hand up and a Tim Horton’s.

Canada’s war to the shore

Hearings into the Northern Gateway project open today.

The Northern Gateway is an Enbridge pipeline proposed to run from northern Alberta’s oilsands to Kitimat, British Columbia, where a new deep-water port will allow export of Canada’s black gold all over the world, but especially to China and India.

The line will be a double pipe, each 1,177km long, one flowing West with rich Albertan oilsands goodness, the other East with condensate that will be used to send more oil West. Enbridge estimates the Northern Gateway will move 525,000 barrels of oil per day.

The Northern Gateway does not cross an international border and is designed to move Canadian oil to a Canadian port for export for the good of Canada’s economy.

And that’s where the trouble starts.

Needless to say, every environmentalist worth his or her salt is against this project. Because it’s oil, and oil is bad. Never mind that the modern world cannot manage without it and is significantly better off buying ethical oil from Canada than from stone-age theocracies who stone chicks for kicks.

Hippies are feeling pretty good after stalling the Keystone XL pipeline which would move Albertan oil to refineries in the US, and now they want to block the pipeline West to Kitimat. They wish to deny Canada the ability to exploit its natural resources. And make no mistake about it, at an estimated $72-billion, this project is worth a lot to Canada.

But many of the protesters have no standing in the matter. They are not Canadian, but are funding Canadian useful idiot front groups to hide their interference in domestic affairs. Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver did not mince words about the agenda of these radical groups:

Unfortunately, there are environmental and other radical groups that would seek to block this opportunity to diversify our trade. Their goal is to stop any major project no matter what the cost to Canadian families in lost jobs and economic growth.

No forestry. No mining. No oil. No gas. No more hydro-electric dams.

These groups threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda. They seek to exploit any loophole they can find, stacking public hearings with bodies to ensure that delays kill good projects. They use funding from foreign special interest groups to undermine Canada’s national economic interest.

They attract jet-setting celebrities with some of the largest personal carbon footprints in the world to lecture Canadians not to develop our natural resources. Finally, if all other avenues have failed, they will take a quintessential American approach: sue everyone and anyone to delay the project even further.

It’s nice to see a government unafraid to tackle the meddling hippies who would wreck our economy. The Prime Minister has also mentioned his concern about the 4300 individuals and groups who have registered to have their say in the Northern Gateway project.

Ezra Levant trawled the list of those wishing to testify and discovered that Venezualuan thug Hugo Chavez’s CITGO is on the list, as is the movie pirate Jack Sparrow and a fellow called ‘caveman’. Which about sums up the deep thinking of pipeline opponents.

For Canadians who want to see the approval process kept Canadian, OurDecision.ca details the foreign firms, foundations and activists funding green front groups, like the Pembina Environmental Foundation:

It keeps an office in Alberta, but it got paid $2.8 million from American billionaires to fight against Canada’s resource industry and our jobs. The Pembina is the name of a Canadian river; with this mighty flow of foreign funds, this group should change its name.

The modern world runs on oil, no matter how much the radical greens wish it didn’t, and Canada will sell its oil, no matter how much radical greens don’t want us to.

That’s just an inconvenient truth.

Not so smart power

Ontario has spent over $1 billion to install ‘smart meters’ across the province.

But Ontario has no idea if they are working as intended:

Ontario’s environmental watchdog says the province has no idea if its hydro ‘smart meters’ are having any effect on electricity conservation.

smart meter, dumb idea

Smart meters were installed to enable Time-of-Use billing, a scheme which charges consumers higher rates for peak-time electricity use. The goal was to reduce overall peak-time use by discouraging domestic consumers from using power when offices and industry are in full swing.

But people are not fans of doing laundry between supper and breakfast, so they do it when it’s convenient. If the government’s plan is to work they will be forced to increase the differential between off-peak and peak-use times. That would mean annihilation for the government at the next election. But Gord Miller, the province’s Environmental Commissioner, recommends exactly that:

Miller says he is concerned that electricity use continues to spike on hot summer days — “a peaking problem” he calls it. If that keeps up, Miller says, Ontario will need to build controversial and costly power plants to cope with peak demand. His suggestion is not one that will sit well with most consumers: make hydro more expensive at peak times. “I think the reward for using power off-peak should be greater, and the penalty for using power on-peak should be greater as well,” Miller said. Until Ontario’s power authority gets a handle on the impact of smart meters Miller says setting the different time-of-use prices is nothing more than guess work.

Smart meters were only necessary because Ontario’s Liberals have so badly mismanaged the power needs of Ontario. Premier McGuinty bought into unaffordable solar and wind options, and now we’re in a position where consumers will face far higher utility bills because we cannot produce enough affordable, reliable power.

Smart power, eh?