Obama, Keystone XL, Canadian Green Perspectives and the Rest of Us

[dewline]

A friendly acquaintance of mine (and several others on my friendlist here at LJ) recently posted some interesting observations about the possible consequences of Obama's decision on the Keystone XL pipeline project.

I suspect that Alex is right on several points here, but I'd be interested in your perspective on his POV. Anyone?

Comments

Re: Echoes of the NDP, circa 1975

[ed-rex.livejournal.com]

She might be more natural to the NDP, yet she was a minister in the Mulrooney government. And yet — and strange as it is to say about someone leading a fifth party as its only sitting member — she strikes me as a principled pragmatist, however much that might sound like an oxymoron.

And just what does the NDP stand for any more, other than wanting things to be nice? I was appalled when the NDP joined in the chorus for the war on Libya, as if they had lost all their historical memory. And May? She had the courage to stand up and speak against it.

Re: Echoes of the NDP, circa 1975

[dewline.livejournal.com]

The Conservatives had their motives, and everyone else who felt it proper and necessary had their own set(s) of reasons. I figured that the referral to the International Criminal Court by the UN Security Council may have provided a "fig leaf" for what happened, but it's set a precedent for future ICC arrest warrant operations to build upon. A double-edged sword, sure, but not necessarily a bad thing.

Re: Echoes of the NDP, circa 1975

[ed-rex.livejournal.com]

In the very long run, that fig leaf may help to build a genuinely impartial criminal court, but for now, it remains mostly a tool of the imperium — and I do think that's a bad thing.

How many countries to "we" wreck for the ones we save?

I happened to be on Parliament Hill sometime last year when I caught a glimpse of the Glebe's Paul Dewar speaking to a crowd urging a NATO attack on Qadafi as if he somehow believed (and he probably did) that, this time, the bombing would really be Humanitarian.