Politics in 2018

[Altair]

But your pal didn't save the day...

As I said at the time,  the BC government hadn't done anything yet. 

Should they proceed I definitely think the federal government would have stepped up and squashed the move by BC.

But while there were a lot foaming at the mouth demanding immediate action,  this has been resolved without the federal government having to get nasty with BC. A much better way,  no?

Now the courts will get this and in all likelyhood side with transmountain and the federal government. And with BC now not able to stop the pipeline,  who now doubts that it gets built?

 

[jollyjacktar]

The proof will be in the doing.  And nothings doing yet.  As the Brits say " there's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip".  I'll believe it when l see it and not before else we'd be living like the Jetsons by now.

 

[McG]

http://nationalpost.com/commodities/b-c-to-seek-reference-case-in-courts-over-pipeline-dispute/wcm/875e4768-b85a-4d67-8aab-a8085cb59a11
Crisis over.

No need for the feds to get nasty. Everyone happy?

I think the word you are looking for is “postponed”.  The crisis is not averted ... not yet.

 

[Kat Stevens]

Sorry, but until the oil has been squirted down the tube and onto a tanker, I'll save my happy dance. Things have a way of getting mired in the courts.

 

[McG]

Sorry, but until the oil has been squirted down the tube and onto a tanker, I'll save my happy dance. Things have a way of getting mired in the courts.

That’s the right answer.

BC is fighting a delay.  It does not even need to win in the courts.  It just needs to last until the investors bail (and they know this).  Hopefully, if that comes to pass, the federal government will still see the proceedings through to conclusion for the next time.

 

[Altair]

That’s the right answer.

BC is fighting a delay.  It does not even need to win in the courts.  It just needs to last until the investors bail (and they know this).  Hopefully, if that comes to pass, the federal government will still see the proceedings through to conclusion for the next time.

they are not going to be restricting the oil flowing through the pipelines until they win the court case.

his government would proceed with the first four points of his environmental protection plan but send the fifth and most controversial point – restricting the flow of diluted bitumen from Alberta – to the courts in a reference case.

BC needs to win in order to do any damage. Unless you believe they have a case,  crisis over.

 

[McG]

they are not going to be restricting the oil flowing through the pipelines until they win the court case. 
BC needs to win in order to do any damage. Unless you believe they have a case,  crisis over.

Pipelines need to be built.  BC can do the damage it wants by delaying.

 

[Altair]

Pipelines need to be built.  BC can do the damage it wants by delaying.

Transmountain can build the pipeline, increase the amount of oil flowing through it when it's built and if, and only if BC wins their court case can the flow of oil be effected. That can be years away. And in all likelyhood, they will not win.

What delay?

 

[McG]

Is the province not still backing Burnaby’s appeal to block the pipeline via bylaw?  And what are investors going to do if KM starts building a pipeline while the province threatens to block its use once built?

 

[Altair]

Is the province not still backing Burnaby’s appeal to block the pipeline via bylaw?  And what are investors going to do if KM starts building a pipeline while the province threatens to block its use once built?

That city bylaws can hold up a national energy project?

I don't think the city has a leg to stand on, do you?

 

[McG]

Well, the first court did not seem to think they had a leg to stand on (that’s why it is going to appeal), but that does not matter.  As I already stated, BC and its municipalities don’t need to win in the court.  They can achieve their aim through delay.

It worked for Montreal and the TransCanada pipeline.  BC knows it can work again ... especially if the federal government remains disengaged.

 

[Kat Stevens]

Every municipality and regional district along the proposed line can ask for court injunctions against construction until the impact on the mating cycle of the red striped racing worm can be ascertained, or any of a jillion other reasons to study environmental impact. They could tie it up for decades.

 

[Altair]

I for one will be happy when this nonsense is over with, and I hope for the sake of Alberta and Canada on a whole that these pipelines are built.

 

[pbi]

I'm proud of our Canadian stereotypes and our cultural garb, and to see a foreign dignitary sporting it in good fun would make me smile.

Yes. Yes...I see now that it probably would...... ;D

 

[pbi]

I for one will be happy when this nonsense is over with, and I hope for the sake of Alberta and Canada on a whole that these pipelines are built.

I bet the PM wishes that too. I know I do. I live one block from the CN main line in Kingston, and I don't like seeing those long drags of dozens of tanker cars, even at the reduced running speed. IMHO, far far more risky and accident-prone than any properly engineered pipeline would ever be.

I don't believe that we can't exploit our resources in an intelligent way and still protect our environment to a prudent and reasonable degree that our children will not curse us for. To me it isn't "either/or".

 

[Rifleman62]

More new outfits. Video from Canada House as the PM dances the night away.

https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/justin-trudeau-breaks-into-bhangra-at-delhi-event-twitter-is-divided-1816200  (Video at Link)

Justin Trudeau Breaks Into Bhangra At Delhi Event. Twitter Is Divided - 23 Feb 18
Dressed in a black shervani and accompanied by wife Sophie Trudeau, the 46-year-old danced to the beats of a dhol at a venue that was decked up like a big, fat Delhi wedding.



Crikey, even Don Martin!

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/don-martin-blog/don-martin-if-this-is-trudeau-putting-canada-back-on-the-world-stage-we-should-get-off-1.3815230  (Video at Link)

Don Martin: If this is Trudeau putting Canada 'back' on the world stage, we should get off - 22 Feb 18

First, that testy unproductive China visit last fall. Then there was the angry group of Pacific Rim partners left stewing as Canada waffled back from a free trade agreement. And let's not get started on how repeated soothing Justin Trudeau visits have only ramped up President Donald Trump’s trash-talking of Canada for re-negotiating NAFTA in bad faith. Now add India to the list of countries which have lowered their opinion of Canada as a result of prime ministerial visits.

If this is Trudeau putting Canada back on the world stage, we should get off.

This week’s far-too-long tour of India by a prime minister looking for campaign-friendly photo-ops has become a cross between the Keystone Cops and Mr. Dressup. Poor advance team scouting, lousy political intelligence-gathering, awkward fashion advice and a major security breach have turned a minor snub at the arrival gate into a sustained epic failure. For six days Trudeau has wandered the country with a collection of mediocre cabinet ministers in tow who have little reason to be there beyond being Sikh.

Meanwhile his foreign affairs and international trade ministers stayed home.

This is not to begrudge the effort. India is an overlooked economic giant with unlimited potential for Canadian interests. It's in the mission delivery where things have fallen apart. In the quest for perfect optics, they missed the big picture problem of an India whose leaders believe, rightly or wrongly, that Canada is too cozy with Khalistani extremists.

And you knew this was truly a voyage of the damned when, just as Punjab was pacified, it fell apart all over again. A Canadian Sikh extremist, convicted in the attempted murder of an India cabinet minister, was discovered as an honored reception guest.

By the time CTV News discovered the nonsensical inclusion of a celebrity Indian cuisine chef from Canada, flown at taxpayers’ expense to whip up a dinner in India, well, it was almost comic relief.

Given his now-proven tendency to bring tension to otherwise calm international relationships, Justin Trudeau should just stay home. For the next while, for the preservation of our good name, the world doesn’t need more Canada.

 

[Loachman]

http://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/justin-trudeau-in-the-real-world/

Justin Trudeau in the real world

Paul Wells: The prime minister’s so-called ‘state visit’ trip to India was so tone-deaf, hopeless and unserious he might as well never have gone

February 22, 2018

"In most of the world, secession is not a once-in-a-generation five-week downer that causes awkward moments around the dinner table. In India, the 1947 partition that led to the creation of Pakistan created a river of blood, hundreds of thousands of deaths, tens of thousands of rapes, millions internally displaced, betrayal, upheaval and grief. In much of India it’s hard to walk into any room without meeting people whose family stories prominently feature harrowing tales of this massive human tragedy.

"Visitors aren’t expected to sit for an essay exam on the ramifications of all this for the modern-day Sikh independence movement. Maybe a highly-hypothetical secession of the Sikh homeland would go more smoothly! But this is the emotional landscape within which such questions are considered, in a real place with real people.

"So maybe if you visit India, don’t spend the week parading across the landscape dressed like the Griswolds, to be met at a couple of stops by an easily-identifiable convicted violent extremist who has a well-documented recent history of popping up in British Columbia at Liberal events and on Liberal organizational charts. Especially if the fellow in question specialized in violence related to the very sectarian disputes Trudeau is suspected of taking too lightly."

"This trip began with an omen when the official PMO news release announcing it called it a “state visit.” Canadian heads of government don’t make state visits; governors-general do. Prime Ministers make official visits. In Ottawa, people familiar with the distinction are so common they are practically falling from the trees."

"Apparently none fell on anyone in Trudeau’s staff. And so this kind of is a state visit after all, insofar as it’s premised on the assumption that its protagonist is a ceremonial figure who is not authorized to make executive decisions. It follows a China trip in which the PM arrived in chinos and left with no trade deal, and an APEC summit in Danang that went so badly the Liberals had to send a sometime Liberal party factotum to Tokyo weeks later to mend fences. It’s not a great thing when the question that arises, consistently, when a prime minister travels is what the hell he thinks he’s doing."

 

[jollyjacktar]

"Just not ready.  Nice hair though."  The words of those commercials ring so true still for me and it appears to increasing numbers of peoplekind as well. 

 

[Edward Campbell]

http://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/justin-trudeau-in-the-real-world/

Justin Trudeau in the real world

Paul Wells: The prime minister’s so-called ‘state visit’ trip to India was so tone-deaf, hopeless and unserious he might as well never have gone

...

My comments are in the India thread, so I will not repeat them here.

 

[Loachman]

John Robson: Trudeau's next mind-bogglingly ambitious policy he won't deliver on

The federal Liberal administration intends to assess every policy based on how it will affect everything to do with gender. And after lunch, world peace

John Robson

February 22, 2018 10:47 AM EST

"Trudeau is the reductio ad absurdum of the illusion that the whole concept of practical difficulties is either a failure of imagination or a plot to thwart social justice. Hence his response to the failure of any high-minded sweeping promise to which no real practical thought was given, is to make an even more sweeping one with even less thought, including his recent third pledge of total transformation of Aboriginal policy in Canada. But this “gender-based policy analysis” is far more astoundingly cosmic."