Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks with forked tongue. He lies to Canadians. He called the media together for the announcement after the opposition had gone home for the weekend. He told the media how he and his colleagues had agonized over the Nexen decision over the past five months. And then he told them just what most people expected him to say.
Are Canadians to believe that Mr. Harper said: these deals and no more? What he really did was leave the door open so wide, other countries will be coming through it for their share of the pie. What we all know is that Mr. Harper is open for business—in any way it wants to present itself.
Mr. Harper has always put business interests ahead of the interests of Canadians, now and in the future. His direction on the environment is to placate business. His position on highly volatile pipelines is to push them through wherever the oil business wants them. He spends a great deal of his time as Prime Minister selling Canadian oil, opening and expanding markets. He is just a flack for the oil companies and he does it on our dime.
Some people think of Stephen Harper as a neoconservative. He is not. He is a very pragmatic conservative. He tries to silence his party’s crazies. He threatens them in government. He suppresses them in the party hierarchy. And, if they ever break loose from his Pandora’s box, Canadians will rue the day. A lot of quasi-conservative Canadians voted for Harper seeking stability and their financial future. They have no idea of what the crazies in his party have in store for them.
Some news media see the change after allowing CNOOC to buy Nexen for $15.1 billion as an end to state-owned companies buying Canadian resource companies. That is a bit hard to believe as the companion deal was the approval of Malasia’s state-owned Petronas being allowed to buy Progress Energy Resources for $6 billion. That might be smaller than the Chinese deal but is hardly small.
Mr. Harper might promise to be tougher on the next customer coming through that open door but they will find he is no gate keeper. They will find Mr. Harper is an obsequious concierge. He is there to serve the industry.
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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry
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