Are Harper’s dreams of Canada as energy superpower going up in smoke? – by Jeff Rubin (Globe and Mail – June 2, 2014)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Are Prime Minister Harper’s dreams of Canada becoming an energy superpower going up in smoke? In the last decade, his Conservative government has done everything but roll out the red carpet for the energy sector. Whether it’s multi-million dollar advertising campaigns in the United States, gold-plated junkets to foreign energy markets, or muzzling opposition from domestic environmentalists, never before have we seen Ottawa shill so unabashedly for a single industry.

Such unbridled support is more than a little ironic. In theory, Harper’s brand of free market conservatism should have him recoiling at the thought of a government trying to pick winners. Either that or the rest of us just missed the chapter in the Wealth of Nations that made an exception for Big Oil. Ideology, I suppose, is great until it becomes inconvenient.

Unfortunately for Canadians, it’s becoming clear that despite the Prime Minister’s best attempts at economic intervention, their government is playing a losing hand. While everyone from poker players to fund managers can tell you that sometimes you need to cut bait on a bad position that’s not what’s happening here. Even as the rest of the world is realizing that it must wean itself off fossil fuels, the Harper government wants to double down on the resource.

Canadians have been force-fed the idea that the energy sector is the engine of economic growth for the nation. But take a look around. Whether it’s British Columbia’s hopes for liquefied natural gas, Alberta’s for the oil sands or the country’s struggling coal mines, the news is hardly encouraging.

A newly minted gas accord between Russia and China has all but taken the wheels off B.C.’s plans to become a major LNG exporter. Natural gas from eastern Siberia will be supplied at a cost that’s 30 to 40 per cent less than what Asia currently pays for LNG shipments.

Canadian coal producers are facing a similar story. As China continues to choke on its own emissions, the country is starting to pump the brakes on what was once considered an insatiable appetite for coal-fired power. The resulting plunge in coal prices has turned into hard times for global coal miners.

For the rest of this column, click here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/are-harpers-dreams-of-canada-as-energy-superpower-going-up-in-smoke/article18942499/?cmpid=rss1#dashboard/follows/