Prime Minister Justin Trudeau bought a pipeline in 2018, and then pushed through the building of the Trans Mountain Expansion project. For that, he deserves credit and thanks. It’s one of the most significant economic accomplishments of his time in office. It will pay dividends to our economy for decades to come.
But you’ll never hear his government or his party crowing about it. Nope.
How could they? TMX is (sigh) an oil pipeline. And the Trudeau government acts like there’s an
omertà on that word: oil. In the Liberal style guide, it’s a four-letter word. Ministers and the PM try to avoid using it in polite company. Like other swear words, it only comes out under duress.
But under the duress of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats, oil is suddenly being talked about, loudly and often. We are being forced to see things as they are, and to call them by their names.
Canada is not an “energy superpower” that exports lots of “energy” – these being the Trudeau government’s preferred euphemisms. We produce and export massive amounts of oil. We are on oil superpower. Oil, oil, oil.
We’re the world’s
fourth-largest producer of oil, out-pumping every country in the Middle East save Saudi Arabia. Canada is also the world’s fifth largest producer of natural gas, ahead of all in the Mideast except Iran.
In 2023, Canada exported
$192-billion worth of “energy” – $4-billion of electricity and $134-billion of crude oil and bitumen, plus another $54-billion worth of natural gas, coal and refined oil.
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