SPECTACULAR CYNICISM OF TRUDEAU'S PIPELINE MORASS

    Yet as the National Observer report shows, the Liberals’ own consultation process was little more than window dressing for a fundamentally Conservative position: the pipeline is going in, no matter what. Having served as a handy prop during the campaign, dissenting First Nations are now a hindrance to be pushed aside as gently as possible. It underscores a longstanding conceit in this country: Liberals talk like the NDP but govern like Stephen Harper with a hangover.
    Meanwhile, phase two of the government’s pipeline plan lurches on, with key ministers playing a role. Catherine McKenna is Dr. Jekyll, airily tweeting about carbon levies and international commitments. Resources minister Jim Carr, playing the role of Mr. Hyde, grimly reassures Kinder Morgan (and all oil companies by proxy) that the country is open for their business. Together, McKenna and Carr serve the same end: to fluff the government’s environmental bona fides, and to get oil to a coastline despite them.
    Yet politically canny as it is, the Trudeau government’s Jekyll & Hyde approach to pipeline development is utterly hamstrung by its own rhetoric. Trudeau has happily glommed onto the environmental movement, making being one with nature an intrinsic part of his brand. He has also devoted a fair bit political capital to extolling the rights of First Nations in both matters of reconciliation and autonomy. He did both for the same reasons: a soupçon of personal conviction and a heap of political expediency.