To the Editor,
Re: B.C. sets conditions for pipeline OK, July 26.
Most B.C. residents, as well as the media and both the federal and provincial NDP, have been coerced by a slick campaign to make us believe that the Enbridge pipeline and the shipping of crude oil from our ports is akin to the apocalypse and that all life would end if an oil spill should occur.
Please ponder for a moment to consider where all the information about the dangers of pipelines and oil spills is originating.
The First Nations people don’t have any knowledge of pipelines, nor do the environmentalists have the resources to fund such a campaign as we are presently experiencing.
Who would benefit most from having a ban on Canada exporting our oil offshore and reaping the benefits of world prices for our commodity?
The answer is very easy – it would be our (friend) and neighbour the United States of America, which firmly believes it should have sole rights to our oil, and all the other resources we have, at their price and their pleasure.
At this time, they are already discounting the price they pay for our oil and as we have no other place to sell it, we have to accept it and shut up.
The same thing happened to our lumber, wheat, beef, pork and coal until the federal government had the intestinal fortitude to stand up and seek new offshore markets.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his government tweaked onto this campaign this spring when they banned foreign funds and foreign representations to the National Energy Board, but the fox was already in the chicken coop and the seeds of the campaign were well-entrenched.
The Americans have pumped millions of dollars into funding the negative campaign and installed a host of well-educated dissenters who are busy stirring up the First Nations and kick starting the environmentalists.
While we may scoff at the thought, it is not inconceivable that the venerable CIA, which is known to work all over the world for the political and financial benefit of the U.S., may have a finger in the pie.
Who could say that the first Enbridge oil spill and the most recent spill was not triggered by that subversive group, as espionage and bombing is their trademark.
As well, the proposal to build a pipeline from the border to the refineries on the East Coast, which would have boosted our exports but was not in the best interests of the Americans’ long-term objectives, as they would prefer our product stay in the ground for future consideration, and only be used when it suited the Americans.
Canadians for the most part are quite gullible and seem to accept the words of so-called experts and don’t take the time or effort to do any investigation on their own.
Wake up B.C. and look at the facts, oil has moved across the continent and the oceans for more than a century.
Norway produces all its oil offshore and pipes it through underwater pipelines to their onshore refineries in seas that would make our West Coast waters look like a mill pond.
They control their system with little or no difficulty, as do the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Brazil, the United States and a multitude of other nations.
They all benefit from the income of their resources and I think it is time for Canada and British Columbians to do the same.
Don Olsen
Nanaimo