I've been struck by the arguments of the Trans Mountain supporters, even the TorStar editorial board. Invariably they reduce their argument to an economic issue. They omit any mention of climate change or environmental jeopardy to our Pacific coastal waters. To them those perils are irrelevant which means that, to them, the Toronto Star editorial board included, coastal British Columbians are just as irrelevant.
They expect us to know our place and to accept that their economic imperative, the "national interest," trumps our own interests in what we consider our waters, not theirs.
It's this attitude that we get from bitumen boosters from the prime minister to Carr and McKenna and Garneau all the way to eastern editorialists that casts them, in our eyes, as intruders, foreigners and makes us question why we should tolerate this supposed confederation in which some of us are so far from equal with the others.
The way we've been manipulated, lied to, betrayed, duped and intimidated and threatened is corrosive to any desire for national unity. We do have friends, real friends, including Washington state's governor Inslee, who will see us with ample supplies of oil and gas. Trudeau needs Alberta. We don't and we don't need Trudeau either.
I was very disappointed to read the Star endorsement of the pipeline, Mound. As you say here, there is a very narrow lens examining the issue, an economic one, and even that rests on some very shaky grounds.
I've been struck by the arguments of the Trans Mountain supporters, even the TorStar editorial board. Invariably they reduce their argument to an economic issue. They omit any mention of climate change or environmental jeopardy to our Pacific coastal waters. To them those perils are irrelevant which means that, to them, the Toronto Star editorial board included, coastal British Columbians are just as irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteThey expect us to know our place and to accept that their economic imperative, the "national interest," trumps our own interests in what we consider our waters, not theirs.
It's this attitude that we get from bitumen boosters from the prime minister to Carr and McKenna and Garneau all the way to eastern editorialists that casts them, in our eyes, as intruders, foreigners and makes us question why we should tolerate this supposed confederation in which some of us are so far from equal with the others.
The way we've been manipulated, lied to, betrayed, duped and intimidated and threatened is corrosive to any desire for national unity. We do have friends, real friends, including Washington state's governor Inslee, who will see us with ample supplies of oil and gas. Trudeau needs Alberta. We don't and we don't need Trudeau either.
I was very disappointed to read the Star endorsement of the pipeline, Mound. As you say here, there is a very narrow lens examining the issue, an economic one, and even that rests on some very shaky grounds.
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