Brad Wall stands up for ethical oil

Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall has had enough of the irresponsible fabrications being peddled by the anti-oil sands lobby. The proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which promises to deliver 700,000 barrels of Canadian crude to U.S. markets a day, isn’t based in Saskatchewan (though economic spin-offs from the oil sands bring jobs and help fund social services across the entire country). But Wall thinks limousine-activists like Al Gore and Daryl Hannah are actually harming Canada-U.S. relations with their propaganda. He’s right.

Wall spoke bluntly to an audience of American state speakers at their annual conference:

“Here you have a friend, here you have a country that has the same core values in terms of democracy, freedom and human rights … and that’s the country you target when you are happy to import oil from places where women are not allowed to drive, where gays are persecuted, where there is no democracy and I think it’s time that we speak bluntly about that because overall the relationship is suffering,” Wall recalled to the Globe and Mail.

The result? Not one, not two, but three standing ovations. Said South Carolina Speaker Bobby Harrell. who hosted the meeting, and never met Wall before: “I didn’t know what to expect. … He had everybody sitting on the edge of their seats. His message was right on target”

Available At:

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Ethical Oil: The Case for Canada's Oil Sands

In Ethical Oil, Levant turns his attention to another hot-button topic: the ethical cost of our addiction to oil. While many North Americans may be aware of the financial and environmental price we pay for a gallon of gas or a barrel of oil, Levant argues that it is time we consider ethical factors as well.