Pete's Viewpoint

As if planned this way, Conservative cry-babies react to the Trans-Mountain decision by appropriating the pipeline setback as "western alienation". Spare me for a moment while I try not to throw up. Albertans and pro-pipelines folks are no doubt upset by the Appeals Court to overturn Cabinet approval for the pipeline project, but not because the Ottawa Liberals suddenly turned anti-West.  To be sure, I have never seen such a pro-pipeline party as Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party; so much so that the Natural Resources Minister had to apologize for threatening to call in the military on pipeline protesters. Even Stephen Harper didn't go that far. What Trudeau is guilty of is betraying a central campaign promise. He said that his new government would reboot the approval process as the 'current model' was flawed. He was right. The process was flawed - it is still flawed. That is why the court acted as it did. The problem is that Trudeau didn...

It seems like only yesterday that Premier Rachel Notley was demanding that protesters camped out on Burnaby mountain disperse after having lost another court challenge in regards to #tmx prep work being carried out. The Alberta Premier was loud and clear about her insistence that folks respect the law of the land and do as the courts demand. Well , funny thing about that; no sooner the Federal Appeals Court rules against the proposed pipeline that the good Premier throws a Trump-style tantrum and demands federal intervention. Now, I don't mean to make light of this; the pipeline project being put on hold (possibly stopped altogether) is a serious setback for a province who's primary industry is linked to the fate of said proposal. It wasn't long ago that 3rd party leader, Rachel Notley was campaigning on the notion of more diversification of the Alberta economy. She made serious political mileage in bashing 44 years of PC rule that put almost all of its economic eggs i...

Justin Trudeau is getting a fair amount of ribbing in international and domestic media about his apparent misfire while on his trip to India. What I mean is that images coming out of his official trip show him and his young family dressed in brightly coloured traditional garb in a way that yells out 'cultural appropriation' from the rooftops. And perhaps this was ill advised; he looks ridiculous. But give it three days, almost on cue, liberal supporters trot out images of Stephen Harper also wearing culturally significant garb in the many international travels he had as Prime Minister. The Liberals are famous for turning an advantage from a mistake. The misfire morphed into trolling, and as if it had been planned all this time, it brought out some very racist backlash against the Liberal Party. Just when Conservatives were making some inroads into Justin's stubbornly high approval ratings, the inadvertent trolling brought out the darkest elements of conservative outrage...