How did things go so wrong in Canada? There used to be a day when we could count on our level headed neighbors to the north to be decent and more rational than our own country. And then the Stephen Harper years began. Harper could easily feel comfortable in today's GOP, he's so extreme. Even the Teabaggers would gladly hold a seat for him. Now that the world is waking up (finally) to the environmental cost of the tar sands oil, the EU has been reviewing plans to list this oil as even more polluting than regular oil. Keep in mind that Harper is from Alberta, where the filthy tar sands industry is driving the economy. Europe doesn't need a war of any kind these days, especially a trade war, but that just may happen. The Guardian:
Canada has threatened a trade war with European Union over the bloc's plan to label oil from Alberta's vast tar sands as highly polluting, the Guardian can reveal, before a key vote in Brussels on 23 February. "Canada will not hesitate to defend its interests, including at the World Trade Organisation," state letters sent to European commissioners by Canada's ambassador to the EU and its oil minister, released under freedom of information laws. The move is a significant escalation of the row over the EU's plans, which Canada fears would set a global precedent and derail its ability to exploit its tar sands, which are the biggest fossil fuel reserve in the world after Saudi Arabia. Environmental groups argue that exploitation of the tar sands, also called oil sands, is catastrophic for the global climate, as well as causing serious air and water pollution in Alberta.
