Green party leader Elizabeth May looks tired. The 65-year old is no stranger to politics or environmentalism. She has been touring in and around Barrie on some of the hottest days of the summer and she is showing the strain.
The wife and I would have loved to invite her up to our place for a tall cooling libation but the local liberals would never have understood. We could also have an interesting conversation about the coming election but that would only be if our guest wished.
And the lady is already having enough trouble with her party’s candidates. I know the local greens and neither could get my vote. The problem is that Ms. May is very liberal and knowledgeable in non-environmental subjects, her local candidates have no other talking points than environmental issues. They are one-trick ponies.
Ms. May’s biggest problem in this election is that her stance on the Trans Mountain pipeline is very close to that of Justin Trudeau. She wants to find a way to alleviate the economic impact of the pipeline’s cancellation. Unlike myself, she does not like to write-off the $4.5 billion Trudeau has already wasted on buying the pipeline.
We do have to face the fact that we will be reliant on refined oil products for quite a few years. The single-pipe, old pipeline can still make money and safely send Alberta’s refined products to the coast for the next dozen or so years. It is tripling the capacity over twin, heated pipes and using high pressure to send diluted bitumen to Burrard Inlet that worries most people. This use of the pipeline is dangerous for the land it is crossing through, the Rockies, the rivers and fish spawning it endangers and the endangerment of the Orca habitat. Just one serious spill of diluted bitumen would be there to haunt us for many, many years.
I expect the greens will have a few more seats in parliament after October 21. We will hope that they are helpful members of the party and not the myopic troublemakers who will make caucus discipline difficult for Elizabeth May.
-30-
Copyright 2019 © Peter Lowry
Complaints, comments, criticisms and compliments can be sent to [email protected]