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When Trudeau gave that speech, which he returned to time and time again including in last year’s election campaign, did all those now branding him a traitor to the environmentalist movement think he was kidding?

Oil is Canada’s most important commodity, constituting 20 per cent of the annual worth of our exports, underpinning the value of our dollar and our national wealth. Because so much of what we produce is landlocked, much of it now trades at a steep discount, upwards of 25 per cent, to the global price.

That translates into billions less in annual revenue for federal and provincial treasuries, which means that much less for social programs, or that much more in debt. It is arithmetic even the federal NDP – as distinct from Premier Rachel Notley’s Alberta NDP, now a very different party with diametrically opposing values, using the same name – and Greens should be able to grasp.

Is there a responsible, sustainable pathway for moving Canadian oil to global markets that is not a pipeline to the ocean? Failing the invention of industrial teleportation, not really. Is there a less invasive way to do it than by twinning or replacing and bulking up existing lines? No. But perhaps Trudeau was speaking in riddles and allegory all those times over many years he said he’d do what he just did.

Here’s why the Liberal claim this was done with political considerations aside should not immediately be met with hoots of laughter. Of course it was political: Every move any leader makes is, and the maneuvering that got the government here, including its climate dance with the provinces, has been politics of the most delicate sort.