Colin MacLeod is the author of the provocative book “The Case for Alberta’s Independence,” and the force behind @cnm5000 on X.This latest Canada-Alberta MOU is just another chapter in the same infuriating story we’ve lived through for fifty years: Ottawa dangles a lifeline to the oil patch when it needs votes or headlines, then quietly lets the rope go slack the moment BC coastal outrage or a Vancouver fundraiser kicks in.Remember Northern Gateway? Killed in 2016 after the Trudeau Liberals promised “nation-building” and then caved to BC First Nations and eco-blockades. Remember Energy East? Abandoned in 2017 when the regulatory goalposts were moved so many times that TC Energy finally walked away in disgust. Remember Keystone XL? Trudeau mouthed support while his government slow-rolled permits until Biden cancelled it with a pen stroke. And Trans Mountain? The one project that actually limped across the finish line only because Ottawa was forced to buy it at fire-sale prices after Kinder Morgan fled — costs ballooned from $4.5 billion to $34 billion, and we still got lectures about climate responsibility from the same people who signed the cheques..JOHNSON: Remember the ArriveCAN scandal? New ‘bait and switch’ report exposes systemic problem in federal procurement.Now they trot out this new 1-million-barrel bitumen fantasy to the north coast, wrapped in the same tired ribbon: Indigenous equity stakes, the “world’s largest” CCUS dream called Pathways, suspension of the emissions cap, and “Clean Electricity Regulations.”All of it hinges on British Columbia’s consent. David Eby has already said no — loudly, repeatedly, and with the same provincial powers that strangled every previous west-coast pipe dream. He’s not bluffing; he doesn’t have to. The route still crosses avalanche paths, earthquake faults, and Great Bear Rainforest watersheds that BC has spent decades turning into political third rails..Coastal First Nations aren’t wavering either. The Haisla, the Gitga’at, the Heiltsuk — many of the same nations that buried Northern Gateway — are already on record: no new heavy-oil tankers, period. Equity cheques might buy a few signatures in Alberta treaty areas, but they won’t buy consent from the people whose fisheries and coastlines are on the front line. The courts have made that clear since 2016.Then there’s the money. No private proponent has stepped forward because none will. Enbridge and TC Energy have fresh scars and full order books on easier, cheaper expansions that don’t require rewriting the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act or begging David Eby for mercy. Global investors look at this corridor, see the same political risk profile that murdered the last three projects, and keep their wallets shut. Alberta is left holding the proponent bag until July 2026, after which the whole thing quietly dies when nobody shows up to finance it..MCCRAE: Brodie vs. Chief Casimir in the Kamloops ‘mass graves’ controversy.Worst of all are the mutual hostage clauses: pipeline approval requires Pathways construction, Pathways funding requires pipeline approval, and every milestone is gated behind “carbon pricing” deals and methane agreements that must be renegotiated by April 2026. It’s a deliberate circular firing squad — give either side an excuse to miss a deadline and the entire house of cards collapses with plausible deniability.Ottawa gets to claim it “tried,” Alberta gets a press release to wave at the next election, and five years from now we’ll be exactly where we are today: landlocked, lectured, and broke. Same script, same betrayal, same infuriating outcome. This pipeline isn’t delayed — it’s already dead. We just haven’t been allowed to bury it yet.Colin MacLeod is the author of the provocative book “The Case for Alberta’s Independence,” and the force behind @cnm5000 on X.
