Thumbs down to a pair of politicians

By Letter to the Editor on August 22, 2017.

Premier Rachel Notley, along with junior Minister of Veteran Affairs and Trudeau Liberal mouthpiece in Alberta Kent Hehr, recently presided over groundbreaking ceremonies for Enbridge’s Line 3.

Line 3 will export crude oil to U.S. Midwest refineries even though 99 per cent of Canadian crude oil already goes to only one customer — the U.S.

Whatever happened to adding value, accessing new markets, and displacing foreign crude oil imports?

Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed said “We should be refining bitumen in Alberta and we should make it public policy.”

Every barrel of Canadian crude committed to Enbridge’s Line 3, to Keystone XL, and to Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion is one more barrel for U.S. Midwest, Gulf Coast, and California refiners, respectively, to profit from, one less barrel that will be upgraded and refined in Canada, and one less barrel available to displace imports of foreign oil into Canada.

Thumbs down to you Minister Hehr — since when did a Trudeau Liberal ever do anything positive for Alberta?

And thumbs down to you Premier Notley for not having the vision and courage to stand up for Albertans. You have consorted with a Trudeau Liberal out of desperate, and purely expedient, politics and have dishonoured Peter Lougheed’s vision in the process.

Mike Priaro

Calgary