Same old, same old

I wrote this letter to 'Globe and Mail' columnist Campbell Clark.  In the past, he has replied, but not this time.  Here it is:

Dear Mr. Clark,

I was going to write a letter to the editor, but I have just had a couple published and thus it would be too soon to have another.  However, I always read your take on events and today's is excellent.  What I would question is the matter of getting a pipeline built anywhere in this country.   

You write that a pipeline proposal, "might not get through the gauntlet of opposition and legal challenges....."  In my view, based on past experiences, "might" should be replaced with "will".  The main opposition, as always, will come from the Indigenous.  Regardless of merit, no proposal can get through anywhere, thanks to their baked in opposition to anything that crosses what they consider "unceded" territory.

Right underneath your column is a piece about First Nations protesting the Ontario mining bill, so that's the problem right there.  What the Indigenous can't seem to understand is that the money given them comes from our vast natural resources, i.e., oil and gas.  But we can't convert it into money if we can't get it out of the ground and on to tide water.  With nothing to lose, First Nations leaders seem to protest for protest's sake.  Anything and everything.  Money will flow to them regardless of what is built, or not.

Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak is already writing to Prime Minister Carney objecting to projects that haven't even been planned yet.  Chief Clarence Louie, of the Osoyoos Band, is one of the few leaders who understands this and works cooperatively with other levels of government and the private sector to make things happen.  Woe betide the Canadian economy, is all I can say.  

As for Mr. Carney's talk, it is interesting to note that his new chief of staff, Marc-André Blanchard, is also a net zero enthusiast who has spent his entire career in the pursuit of the same goals as Mr. Carney; so has the latter's wife.  Between Mr. Blanchard and Carney household "pillow talk", I would not hold my breath waiting for any sensible solutions.  

Unfortunately, no journalist seems to point to the uncomfortable realities facing Canada in the form of chronic Indigenous opposition and the effects of inter-personal relationships among leaders.

Yours sincerely,

Nancy Marley-Clarke

Cochrane, Alberta

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As I say, the natives are already objecting to anything and everything -- even before they see any actual plan.