Bob Layton: The tidewater is turning

Remember back in 2006, when Russia and Ukraine were bickering over natural gas and how Russia eventually cut off gas supplies?

Russian resources got twisted up with politics and the economy and things went from bad to worse.

At the time, I thought, thank goodness, nothing like that would ever happen in Canada. How wrong I was, only we added the environment and the courts and politics and the economy and now our natural resources are really tied in a knot.

Who would have thought that Alberta would create a law allowing the province to turn off the tap to B.C. and that Saskatchewan would plan for the same as an ally?

Now, as the situation appears deadlocked, we’ve got about two dozen business organizations calling on B.C. Premier John Horgan and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to sweep away the nonsense and get construction underway. Forty-some Indigenous groups are showing their support.

The protesters have always been loud, but now it appears the great silent majority has had enough and is finally speaking out. The latest survey in B.C. shows the tidewater is turning and support is growing for the pipeline expansion.

But, B.C. is not alone; Quebec will stand with it. That part seems only right — the two provinces that allow raw sewage to be dumped into the ocean don’t want that raw sewage possibly tainted by diluted bitumen. I mean, who would?

Trudeau, who should have a branch office on the Alberta-B.C. border until this is settled, prefers to stay in Ottawa and just throw money.

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It’s hard to take your eyes off this scenario. As Ken writes me in an email, “It’s like watching a very slow train wreck.”

Let me know what you think.

Bob Layton is the news manager of the Corus Edmonton group of radio stations