The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.
CALGARY – An anti-Keystone XL pipeline commercial funded by President Barack Obama supporter and hedge-fund billionaire Tom Steyer confirms what many Canadians have long suspected — American anti-oil activists have gone mad.
The commercial was intended to be aired Tuesday evening on WRC-TV, an affiliate of NBC in Washington, D.C., to coincide with the president’s appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
The commercial is so offensive the station refused to air it. While intended as a parody, it insults TransCanada Corp. CEO Russ Girling, whose company is proposing Keystone XL; it’s a low blow to Canada; and it shows the anti-Keystone campaign is in desperate need of adult supervision.
“It is evident from the bizarre advertorial’s contempt for the truth that its sponsor wishes to mislead the public, ridicule and demonize the project and tarnish Canada’s strong environmental record,” Canada’s Natural Resources Minister, Joe Oliver, said in an email. “This is unfortunate since the project would enhance North America’s energy security, create jobs and contribute to environmental stewardship on both sides of the border.”
Upset with the rejection, activists aligned with Mr. Steyer’s anti-Keystone XL group NextGen Climate Action launched an online petition to get the commercial, which they say was already paid for and yanked at the last minute, on the air.
“A foreign oil company is blitzing our airwaves to spread misinformation about its Keystone XL pipeline,” Becky Bond, political director for CREDO Action, said in a statement Wednesday. “It’s outrageous that a television station broadcasting on our public spectrum thinks it’s more important to defend TransCanada than air a paid message from U.S. activists urging the president to reject the Keystone XL pipeline.”
The commercial, which can be viewed on YouTube, starts with a white-haired actor standing in front of a broken oil pipeline in a desolate area blanketed with snow and surrounded by mountains — supposedly Canada.
The deranged oil baron introduces himself as Russ Girling.
“They said it couldn’t be done — building an oil pipeline that cut right through America’s heartland,” he says. “I guess we proved them wrong. Yippee!” the actor says, jumping inside the pipeline and emerging south of the border splattered with oil.
“All it took is a little old-fashioned lying. Like when we told the American people it would be good for the economy.
“Keystone is only going to drive the price of oil up!
For the rest of this column, click here: http://business.financialpost.com/2013/08/08/why-the-latest-anti-keystone-pipeline-ad-is-a-low-blow-to-canada/?__lsa=64c2-ed1b