My ethical oil testimony at the House of Commons

UPDATE: Links below are now fixed.

Yesterday I testified before the House of Commons standing committee on natural resources, about my book Ethical Oil. It was a good chance to take my message to Parliament.

Nathan Cullen, the NDP MP, didn't much like me being there. He raised a point of order, complaining that my visit was being televised. He didn't dare debate me -- he wouldn't ask me a single question -- but he did try to filibuster my presentation with his complaints that too many people were watching.

How pitiful and petty -- and how typically NDP. I gave him a copy of my book anyways, but it will probably wind up on his compost heap.

Cullen would rather oil be produced in OPEC countries like Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, where workers are exploited, than be produced in Canada, where workers, unionized or not, are typically paid more than $100,000/year.

But what does Cullen care? He's got his own six-figure job. So his passion is stopping the proposed oil pipeline to the west coast.

It's not just all the lost jobs that Cullen has to answer for. It's the fact that he wants us to remain in the strategically weak position of having only the U.S. as an energy customer. An oil pipeline to the Pacific would let us build economic and political ties to Japan, Korea, India, Taiwan and even China, not only evening out our trade deficit, but reducing our exposure to the risk of Barack Obama's cap and tax schemes.

Apparently, the NDP believes that the U.S. should be our only oil customer. So much for national sovereignty.

Anyways, even though Cullen and the rest of the opposition tried to filibuster and then stonewall me, I was able to get my message out.

Here's a story in the Sun.

And here's a story in iPolitics (quick, free sign-up needed).