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Why is Canada being such a schmuck? In worldwide oil play, where every other country does whatever it can to develop its oil and gas assets, how is it that Canada is the only player actively taking itself out of the game?

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s latest announcement that there will be additional delays in pipeline approvals must have prompted a chuckle that began in the U.S. and turned into an all out belly-splitter by the time it spread to Venezuela, the Middle East and North Africa. These countries get the main rule that we don’t: he who can deliver first, wins.

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Anyone who still believes the environmental narrative that restricting oil production is about saving the Earth is naive; it’s all about money.

Let’s take the example of the United States. While Canada writhes to accommodate American concerns about our oil, the U.S. has taken complete advantage of the delay by exploiting its resources, and why wouldn’t it? It’s what smart countries do. In the time it’s taken to quash the proposed 1,400 kilometres of Keystone XL pipeline, 19,200 kilometres of American pipeline has been built, some of it serving Canada.