NEP II - As per Mark Holland

Cut and pasted from Bourque... yea, a bunch of other people have already posted it, but I'm going to again anyway... we can't afford to let this story be buried by the MSM. Will the Liberals give another Trudeauesque "Up Yours" to Alberta with the introduction of a Kyoto inspired "NEP II"?

Sunday, February 4 - A Bourque Exclusive

LIB MP HOLLAND: "THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES"
When will the Mainstream Media start covering the Liberal Agenda?
by Charles Adler

As I apply my ink stained fingers to the trusty keyboard, it's been more than 72 hours since Mark Holland, the Liberal Natural Resources critic, belched out the most threatening words I have heard in a political conversation in years.

But for some reason the Mainstream Media has seen them not worthy of attention.

Pierre Bourque of the Bourque Newswatch asked me to scribble my thoughts on the interview with the Liberal MP which contained serious threats to the Western Canadian economy all in the name of respecting Kyoto.

When I asked Holland whether a Liberal government under Stephane Dion would shut down or limit oil sands production if necessary to meet Kyoto targets, his response was, "Exactly." He then went on to say "I think what you are going to see is we're going to say you cannot exploit that resource, basically go in there and pump it out as fast as you can to give it to the Americans and sell out our national interests and blow apart our emissions targets."

I want to give credit where credit is due. Lorne Gunter of the Edmonton Journal in his Sunday Feb 4 column did write about this. But is Lorne Gunter in the only mainstream journalist/columnist in the country who thinks this is newsworthy? Is he the only one who understands what it would mean to the economy of Western Canada and ultimately the entire national economy to tell the energy producers to STOP developing the oilsands, to just tell the guys with the dozers to take their "filthy work ethic" to the unemployment line. Is Gunter the only one who understands the message Stephan Dion's government would send to the capital markets about the unworthiness of investing in the Canadian Energy Industry? Is Gunter the only one who gets how this would level a frontal assault on the Toronto Stock Exchange where so much of what we call growth is dependent on a healthy Oil patch? Is Gunter the only one who gets that this would create an attack on our dollar?

Now perhaps the mainstream media feels that this is not a good time to second guess the fantasies of the Opposition Natural Resources critic. After all Dion and his crew are supposedly on the right side of the Kyoto angels. Perhaps waving a red flag at Alberta is considered the right thing to do in Western Canada. Why dwell on the obvious cause of CO2 emissions in Ontario and Quebec, the fact that half the population of the country, lives, works and drives there?

It's much easier for Liberals to demagogue the issue and pretend that it is ALBERTA energy that embarasses Canada in the hallowed shrine of Kyoto. Perhaps one ought to stop giving the mainstream media excuses for ignoring Mark Hollands sourgas? Maybe it's the oldest reason in the hills. Holland is to the left of the Canadian centre. Does anyone doubt that if a member of Harper's gang were to say something that came right out of rightfield that might be embraassing to the leadership that it would find itself planted firmly on the front pages as well as the teleprompters of Mansbridge, Robertson and Newman?

Warren Kinsella, who was interviewed on Adler on Line after Mark Holland offered his emissions, said he coudln't believe what Holland was saying and thought the Liberal brain trust would immediately disown this stuff.

But they haven't.

Perhaps it is because if the mainstream media don't seize on an event, the Liberal mandarins have no reason to think it ever really happened. Kinsella said that the Liberals need to be reminded that it was a Liberal Government after having reviewed environmental impact studies that approved the initial exploration of the oil sands in 1967 and that successive Liberal governments went on to approve the expansion of that exploration not once, but twice in 1978 and again in 1983.

A day after Mark Holland's threatening remarks, he appeared on my Corus colleague Dave Rutherford's program and was asked whether a Dion government would consdier nationalizing oil companies if they didn't meet Kyoto standards. Holland replied, "If they refuse to work with us....there will be consequences."

On the same day Holland fired this new shot not across but into the bow of Alberta, the former premier of the province, Ralph Klein told my radio audience, "I have a message for the honourable member from Ajax Pickering. Stay out of our business." Klein may no longer have political power. But nobody should doubt that if the Dion-Holland Liberals plan to put a clamp on the continued growth of the Alberta economy, the price to pay for all of us will be enormous.

At the moment, we need to ask the question, "What price are we paying for the Mainstream Media's cold blooded decision to ignore the Liberal agenda."

Charles Adler is the host of Adler on Line on the Corus Radio Network
Listen to Adler's interview with Mark Holland by logging on to www.charlesadler.com
Contact him through his website or email him at adleronline@gmail.com