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The United States’ administration treated the Keystone XL pipeline as a political inconvenience. Environmental organizations painted it as the tipping point between a future based on fossil fuels and one based on green energy. The oil industry wanted it to support its growth agenda.

Now it’s Canada’s turn to decide what Keystone XL stands for. Most likely, it will be about putting Canada first. Whether that suits any of the above is secondary.

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Jim Prentice, the former senior federal Cabinet minister, said Keystone XL’s regulatory review process and its ultimate deferral by U.S. President Barack Obama were a transformational moment for the country on the necessity to open new markets for its biggest export commodity, oil.

The transformation has been so deep he contends it has pushed Canadian energy policy in a new direction.

Eighteen months ago, it would have been controversial for Canada to suggest its future was anything other than as a dependable supplier to the United States. Today, even Americans don’t say that and Canada has been driven into the international energy market place.