Comments on: The Oil Sands and Canadian Identity – a Starter List

By: Hugh Thomas

Hugh Thomas — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 01:01:24 +0000

BC has legislation which requires it to drastically reduce CO2 emissions. So it seems hypocritical to allow bitumen from the tar pits to be transported across BC via a pipeline to be exported.

What’s the point of making the BC public sector pay $millions to purchase carbon offsets, when you’re going to allow a pipeline to transport bitumen across the province?

By: Lindsay Galbraith

Lindsay Galbraith — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 10:06:42 +0000

This is a very timely and worthwhile project. I really enjoyed reading through these quotations – many of which I have missed in my more casual reading of the news on the subject. I think a key theme that is missing here is Canadian culture of science and technology and how it is being represented outside of Canada. Canada is viewed not only as a friendly democracy, but also a responsible one that engages with scientists and offers a transparency that is better than other oil-producing nations. This discourse of science perhaps has been emphasized more within the Canadian media, but we cannot ignore the important role it plays in propping up notions of ‘ethical oil’ internationally. Here are a couple of examples that came to mind:

1. David Schindler on his Nature paper:
“Much of the debate on this topic has gone on without science,” says Schindler. “But the hypothesis that it [PPEs] is ‘all natural’ is wanting, to say the least.” (from: http://www.nature.com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/news/2010/100831/full/news.2010.439.html)

2. The High Commissioner, Gordon Campbell, speech in Scotland:
“We understand there’s going to be a quality fuels directive,” said the High Commissioner. “What we are advocating: make it transparent what the goals are, let’s use sound science to apply those principles to all sources of energy, not just one, and let’s make sure we understand how it’s implemented.”

I am sure you can find more on this subject if you think it fits the scope of your analysis.

By: Keith Stewart

Keith Stewart — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:36:18 +0000

It is interesting that the Turner and Nikiforuk quotes are more or less explicitly drawing the Harold Innis-inspired version of Canadian political history that links resource extraction to regional/national identity, and Thomas-Muller’s quote also fits well in that tradition (albeit from the perspective of someone at the less profitable end of the staples-defined relationship). Innis was, of course, also a mentor for Marshall McCluhan, so there’s probably a paper in there somewhere.

I would add to the list above the following from Stephen Harper, in his first speech as Prime Minister to a business audience in London where he laid out his vision of Canada as “an emerging energy superpower”:

“And an ocean of oil-soaked sand lies under the muskeg of northern Alberta – my home province. The oil sands are the second largest oil deposit in the world, bigger than Iraq, Iran or Russia; exceeded only by Saudi Arabia. Digging the bitumen out of the ground, squeezing out the oil and converting it in into synthetic crude is a monumental challenge. It requires vast amounts of capital, Brobdingnagian technology, and an army of skilled workers. In short, it is an enterprise of epic proportions, akin to the building of the pyramids or China’s Great Wall. Only bigger.”

There was, alas, no reflection on the ecological, ethical or cultural cost of pursuing this kind of “superpower” status in a carbon-constrained world.

http://pm.gc.ca/eng/media.asp?id=1247