Some Canadian reaction, Liberal Party PM Trudeau says he is disappointed at O's decision, but respects it was the USA's right to make this decision.
(by the way, that Trudeau seems way too young and I saw him interviewed by a Canadian reporter and to be quite frank he doesn't seem to know anything. They were trying to ask him questions about the recession and deficit, and Trudeau just smiles a lot but doesn't really seem to know much..
Apparently before parliament, he tried being an "actor" and was also a "bungee instructor" for a while. He has a famous name, father being an an ex PM.)
So anyhow, Trudeau doesn't know what to say really about the pipeline because he just doesn't know about anything anyway much less the oil industry and much less even knowing about eco issues in any detail, or caring about that either. Trudeau seems like a young guy that smiles a lot and looks good on a magazine cover but that's about it, not much there there otherwise.
Even Canada's far left socialist party, the NDP, supports their oil industry.
NDP says climate change discussion should be "drama free" and rational when it comes to oil. NDP also blames Alberta's PM, saying if she had done a better job on climate change in other areas then the world would have a different view of Alberta and wouldn't be talking about the tar sands so much.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley spoke to reporters after the U.S. president's decision.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley said she was not surprised at the decision, but was disappointed by Obama’s description of the oilsands in her province.
“It was not necessary to be quite so critical in the way they described our energy product,” Notley told reporters. “The U.S. relies on our oil. They currently import already over 300-million barrels a day, and so I don’t think it is a particularly logical explanation for why they would reach this position.”
The premier from the center-left New Democratic Party stressed the need for “careful drama-free conversations” on energy infrastructure, but she also said Obama’s decision underlines the fact that Alberta needs to do a better of job of convincing the world of its genuine effort to combat climate change.
“The U.S. makes decisions on the basis of their internal domestic policies… but I do think that one thing that would have made this decision better was ensuring that our record was a better one.”
Canadian conservatives and ex PM Harper are "extremely disappointed:"
The Conservative party — which was in power for nearly a decade under Stephen Harper until last month’s election — said it was extremely disappointed that Obama had “succumbed to domestic political pressure."
“It has been clear for some time that — despite the facts, economic benefits and environmental safeguards — the White House’s decision was a fait accompli,” interim party leader Rona Ambrose said in a press release.
"This project has proven to be good for the economy, the strengthening of energy security in North America, and for environmentally sustainable development. The rejection of Keystone will not stop Canadian oil exports to the United States. It simply means we will continue to rely on transportation alternatives like shipping and rail.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/11/06/keystone-pipeline-rejection-canada-obama-trudeau_n_8495278.html
Lastly, about Canada -- before the pipeline decision, and it's not related to it, but Trudeau called Obama on the phone and said he's pulling back Canada's 6 fighter jets from the anti-ISIS coalition. Trudeau is beginning to indicate that Canada won't do anything or help at all, in the war against ISIS, and he told Obama that Canada won't help with any expanded mission to remove Assad (I heard that part on tv news):
“I committed that we would continue to engage in a responsible way that understands how important Canada has a role to play in the fight against [ISIS,] but [Obama] understands the commitments I’ve made around ending the combat mission,” Trudeau told reporters, the BBC reports. He did not indicate how quickly or when the withdrawal would take place.
Canada also has 70 special forces troops stationed in northern Iraq to help train Kurdish fighters, according to AFP, and Trudeau hasn’t yet indicated a desire to end that particular mission.
http://time.com/4080754/canada-syria-withdrawal/
So THAT policy is a result of liberal domestic politics in Canada, just as canceling this pipeline was the result of liberal politics in the US.
So now ISIS isn't being fought and the insane madman caliphate continues to grow, and we don't have the pipeline either and have to load the oil on trains and build a bunch of smaller pipelines instead.
Maybe liberals, in the US and Canada, are wrong about some things?
Trudeau is just a smiling face and not a serious leader, seems to me. He's pulling Canada out of doing what little it was doing (token) for the coalition, just so he can be "anti war" or whatever.
And on the pipeline, Obama's own state dept concluded it wouldn't have added to greenhouse gasses, but he still canceled it.
My thinking on the issue -- if Canada isn't going to help in international affairs and be a full partner anyway, then that alone is reason to cancel the pipeline. Canada has to pull its full weight, there is no free lunch in the alliance and the world doesn't run on rainbows and skittles and "bungee jump instructors" and USA just protects everyone all by itself.
By the way, this is the interview I saw with Trudeau, he seems out of his depth to me, talking to this older journalist, and it's a lot of general non specific stuff like just "change:"
Canada's been in recession in 2015, due to the crash in oil prices, and deficit spending is up. I posted another article about Canada and about how much money has flown out of there, the most decline of the top ten economies.
Trudeau seems out of his depth to me, when asked "we're in recession now, what's the first thing you do about the economy" and Trudeau says "call together the premiers and talk about climate change." That answer doesn't even relate to the economy.
