Politicians lie about market conditions all the time. Sometimes they lie to themselves | Canadians love their energy myths. Pierre Trudeau destroyed the Alberta oil industry in the 1980s with the NEP (it had marginal effects — the real cause was a global recession and global crude price collapse). Ontario’s electricity costs are way out of line with our U.S. neighbours (actually, they’re much lower). The oilsands need a pipeline because our oil is so deeply discounted (it isn’t). The media bears some responsibility for perpetrating these myths by failing to actually analyze the words coming out of our politicians’ mouths. But its the politicians themselves who ought to know better — they have entire government departments devoted to separating fact from fantasy. In the case of the “deep discount” myth we have to do the math ourselves, since governments are so reluctant to share.
Ross Belot – iPOLITICS – October 19, 2016.
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