Roundup: Two yays and a nay

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The government announced its decisions on three pipelines yesterday – no to Northern Gateway (and a tanker ban on the north coast of BC was also reaffirmed), but yes to Kinder Morgan expansion and Line 3 to the United States. There are a lot of people not happy on either side – the Conservatives are upset that Northern Gateway also didn’t get approved, saying this was just a political decision, and the NDP and Greens (and the mayor of Vancouver) unhappy about the Kinder Morgan announcement, Elizabeth May going so far as to say that she’s willing to go to jail for protesting it.

None of this should be a surprise to anyone, as Trudeau has pretty much telegraphed these plans for weeks, if not months. And as for the critics, well, Robyn Urback makes the point that I do believe that Trudeau was going for:

In fact, Trudeau said as much yesterday in QP when he noted that they were sitting between a party demanding blanket approvals on everything, and another party opposed to approving anything, so that was where he preferred to be. He’s spending some political capital on this decision, including with some of his own caucus members who are not fans of the Kinder Morgan expansion, but he has some to spare, so we’ll see whether he’s picked up any support in the west, or lost any on the west coast when this all blows over.

Good reads:

  • It was Auditor General day yesterday, at the mid-point of his term, and he looked at military maintenance and recruiting, CRA delays in resolving complaints, the lack of metrics for the Beyond the Border plan, and Indigenous offender parole.
  • The pilot killed in the CF-18 crash was identified as 29-year-old Captain Thomas McQueen.
  • The Senate Speaker ruled the Conservative amendment to rejig the government’s tax legislation as being out of order. Better luck with your shenanigans next time.
  • The RCMP want to rebrand “lawful access” electronic surveillance as “going dark” digital evidence challenges.
  • The federal government is threatening to crack down on private MRI clinics in Saskatchewan, even if they offer services to the publicly funded system as well.
  • Bill Blair attended a fundraiser with a lawyer who advocates on behalf of marijuana companies (and is not actually a lobbyist); the party refunded donations anyway.
  • Former parliamentary secretary Pierre Lemieux has joined the Conservative leadership race, because it really need another also-ran.
  • Susan Delacourt argues for both CBC funding and the return of the per-vote subsidy as public goods for democracy.
  • Scott Reid writes about the permanently aggrieved tone in small-c conservative politics these days.
  • My Loonie Politics column warns about the dangers with creating too much populist outrage over inflated corruption insinuations.

Odds and ends:

Tristin Hopper asserts that Nellie McClung not being on the banknote shortlist proves that women need to be perfect, while men get a free pass.

US vice president Joe Biden is coming for an official visit next week, and everyone just lost their minds over it.

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