The China syndrome: PM let a dictatorship buy a major oil player because of tar sands desperation

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from NOW Toronto:



The China syndrome
PM let a dictatorship buy a major oil player because of tar sands desperation

By Wayne Roberts





Canada’s PM might be somebody’s tool, but he’s nobody’s fool.

Given the tar sands’ iffy prospects, Stephen Harper faced limited choices when he allowed the sale of Calgary-based Nexen to China’s state-owned CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Corporation).

Still, it was trippy: Alberta’s oil barons gave birth to Canada’s new brand of neo-conservatism back in the 1980s because they were ticked at PM Pierre Trudeau for creating a national energy policy and a publicly owned national oil company, Petro-Canada.

And now they must cheer on their political creation as he opens the oil sands to a national oil company owned by a foreign power that describes its economy as “Communism with Chinese characteristics.” ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nowtoronto.com/news/story.cfm?content=190358

[xchrom]

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