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As for the suggestion that Canada’s ambitious plans for the oil sands would turn
it into a second-tier country, this man , who is not given to hyperbole, laughed
out loud. Canada’s resource sector was, he said, one of the few things creating
any economic excitement these days.
A U.S. energy advisor to the European Union declared last week that Canada had made “a really, really historic mistake” by backing the oil sands. Europeans, who had made green power their priority, now regarded Canada as “a bad guy” that “could potentially become a second-tier country,” the EU consultant said.
Days later Germany’s ambassador to Ottawa said his country was annoyed with Canada for being slow to contribute to an International Monetary Fund bailout package for Europe.
That anyone with an EU connection today would dare to venture a critical opinion about Canada’s economic policies or its energy priorities takes some gall. Here on the sunny, unhappy shores of the Aegean Sea there are fears of serious public disorder if, as seems likely, the continent’s colossal economic woes worsen.
With similar financial stink bombs smouldering in Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland and already reaching much of the rest of the world, comments about Canada’s economic prospects, or how it spends its money, are not only untimely, they are ridiculous.
Canada’s status as a firsttier nation becomes stronger every day, while even its closest European cousins, Britain and France, are now paddling very hard against the prevailing economic currents to avoid slipping from the first tier. It has reached the point now, frankly, at which half of the EU countries would be overjoyed if they were somehow able to cling to places in the second tier.
As for the EU plans to replace non-renewable power with “clean energy,” this is a fine idea whose time has not yet come. As Germany’s authoritative Der Spiegel newsmagazine has reported more than once this year, the Europeans have so far failed to produce much green power from huge investments in wind farms and solar panels and remain almost totally dependent on those old reviled standbys, oil and gas.
On top of that, while much of the innovative gear required to create clean energy was developed in countries such as Spain, that lucrative business has already largely shifted to China. As it is, aside from Norway, Britain and Russia, the continent produces little power of any kind although, ironically, there is great interest right now in “fracking” for gas in countries such as Poland.
Whatever Germans, who will largely be on the hook for the mess than their EU partners have gotten themselves into, may think about the need for others sharing their burden, the Harper government’s reluctance to throw Canadian taxpayers’ money at the continent’s deep-seated economic problems at this time seems prudent.
For the rest of this article, please go to the National Post website: http://www.financialpost.com/todays-paper/shouldn+throw+stones+Canada/6766871/story.html