Creative Writing: Blogs

Should Foreign Governments Control B.C.'s LNG Exports?
by Elmer G. Wiens

Where is Petro-Canada when we need it? Why was it privatized?

Irony is an important plot device in daytime soap operas. So perhaps we should not be surprised by the situational irony whereby the BC Liberals, aka conservatives, find themselves in bed with a consortium of oil and gas companies, Pacific Northwest LNG, substantially owned by foreign governments. This is the same BC Liberal Party that scandalously privatized a profitable BC government enterprise when they sold BC Rail to their supporter CN Rail.

Pacific Northwest LNG is owned by the governments of Malaysia (Petronas), China (Sinopec), and India (Indian Oil). Do the BC Liberals believe that a company owned by foreign governments will be run efficiently in the interests of BC's citizens, while a company owned by the BC government cannot?

Politics in BC is a soap opera. Some of the actors playing the roles of the Premier and the Ministers of various departments of the BC Government changed with the election of Christy Clark and her conservative cronies. But it is still the same show.