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Even more upsetting is the flimflam involving the Prime Minister’s endorsement of the Trans Mountain expansion project. He bought it for $4.5 billion with tax dollars, then has allowed it to be sabotaged. Recently, a Federal Court of Appeals halted the expansion for six months pending studies about effects on a handful of whales.

Liberals are also looking to pass the dreaded Bill C-69, focused on resource legislation, which many industry executives believe could spell the end of energy development in the country.

It’s even more crazy-making when the most recent poll by Angus Reid in January showed six out of 10 Canadians believe failure to expand pipeline capacity is a “crisis.” The majority of B.C. residents feel the same. And the majority of Canadians believe the oil and gas industry is critical to the national economy. (If Quebec had been excluded from the poll, support would be 10 percentage points higher).

Clearly, this is a national crisis, and yet the Prime Minister won’t deploy the constitutional tools he has to build Trans Mountain and other pipelines. Like it or not, Canada is in the business of resources, mostly oil and gas, that the world needs and wants. To frustrate this capability is a form of national self-destruction.

If the Prime Minister and his party are, like Quebec, dead set against the oil and gas industry, they should be as public and transparent as the oil workers and convoy participants have been.

No more mixed messages. No more delays and excuses. No more backroom manoeuvres or pledging support then allowing federal agencies to pile on needless red tape. Just let voters and taxpayers know the truth.

Then step aside and watch the Tories win this fall.