Russian Invasion

Ted Doleman | Mar 02, 2022

As we witness the invasion of Ukraine by Russia the West, the sanctions are a start but we will not hit Russia where it hurts: oil imports.

I rarely agree with Jason Kenney, but he has rightly pointed out that Canada imports a half a billion dollars in Russian oil, mainly in the eastern provinces. I, and you, have gas from Russian oil in our tanks, we helped fund this war, and there is little we can do about it in the short term. Kenny has quite rightly pointed out that if we had built the pipeline through Quebec into New Brunswick we could have put in delayed cokers in our refineries and then for the most part we would be using Canadian heavy oil and Canadian natural gas to make the fuel we need.

Ezra Levant, who I also rarely agree with, called Canadian oil appropriately ethical oil as most of the benefits, meaning 70% of the operating costs of oil sands going into Canadian wages. It isn’t used by Sheiks or KGB dictators to invade nearby countries; it isn’t kept by multinational companies.

If we want to stop supporting Russia, and other countries that invade and oppress their citizens, we have to implement solutions fully in our control. We can expand our electric vehicle numbers dramatically and we can build pipelines and retrofit Canadian refineries to consume heavy oil from our oil sands.

What is happening in Europe won’t be resolved for more than a decade, we have to be united to defeat it, and we shouldn’t be funding it with the fuel we use to go to work daily.

Ted Doleman