FACT CHECK: Trudeau Liberals have NOT advocated for Keystone XL pipeline

• By Sheila Gunn Reid

PETITION: Build The Keystone XL Pipeline

In 2021 Joe Biden pulled the plug on the Keystone XL pipeline, forcing us to rely on Russia for oil. If you agree that it is in North America's best interest to build the pipeline, please sign the petition on this page.

17,352 signatures
Goal: 25,000 Signatures

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The Keystone XL pipeline makes too much sense to ignore, and we aren’t alone in thinking as much.

In fact over 13,000 of you have already signed out petition stating that it is time to get Keystone XL built at BuildKeystoneXL.com already.

Justin Trudeau is once again insisting that folks are simply remembering things differently than he and his party, he is attempting to rewrite history, he really wants us to believe that the Liberals were pro-Keystone XL all along. Unfortunately, that position doesn’t line up with the facts and the conduct of his colleagues as we will make clear shortly.

Getting ethical Canadian oil to American markets via pipelines, the safest means of transportation for this essential resource, enriches Canadians, improves our quality of life and that of our neighbours to the south, is far more environmentally responsible than tanking in oil from OPEC countries and does not bear the ethical burden of some buying oil for regimes with horrific human rights abuses.

Beyond this, there is the clear supply issue being faced by Americans under President Joe Biden which have only worsened since Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine. The US sanction on Russia oil leaves them with a new deficit of 500-700,000 barrels a day, a deficit which could be addressed quickly by finishing the nearly complete 830,000 barrel a day Keystone XL pipeline.

I recently asked U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, who was visiting Alberta to discuss energy security, about the hostility by the Biden administration and within his Democratic party against the more logical, ethical and readily available Canadian oil, and he agreed that it just doesn’t make sense.

Keystone XL makes so much sense that even the Liberals are now saying they have supported it all along, you can check out this clip of Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freedland saying so herself here:

Canada's Deputy PM says Joe Biden's cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline "was a mistake" and admits that it will enhance energy security once it's built.

"Our government has been very clear that we support KXL(KeystoneXL)"

Sign the petition at https://t.co/dmMRQZ3H90 pic.twitter.com/ve3vIo5u3a

— Efron Monsanto 🇨🇦🚜🚛 (@realmonsanto) April 17, 2022

We decided to fact check whether the Trudeau government had in fact ever done even so much as lifting a finger on behalf of Keystone XL and the jobs and prosperity it would create for countless Canadians. You likely won’t be surprised by what we found.

Firstly, to quickly summarize, Keystone XL was vetoed by Obama in 2015, approved by Trump in 2017 and 2019 and then once again scrapped by Joe Biden in January of 2021. Trudeau blamed Harper for the Obama cancellation, and then repeatedly blamed Canada’s lack of aggressive action on climate change for Biden’s axing of the deal. Notably, Justin naturally takes no blame for any of this… or anything ever as a matter of fact.

Thanks to an Access to Information and Privacy filing we obtained we were able to confirm that the last time Trudeau had raised Keystone XL with Biden was in November of 2020, signalling that little if any effort had been made to change Biden’s mind on the pipeline, and that according to these documents no efforts were made to reach Biden in January when he cancelled the permits to build Keystone XL.

When pressed on the matter in late February of 2021, Trudeau simple stated that he wanted to move on, a sentiment which affirmed what we’ve always known, our Prime Minister is no champion of Keystone XL, or of Western energy period.

It is not only a top down anti-pipeline sentiment among the Liberals however, and despite Freeland insisting that cancelling Keystone XL was a mistake, the ministerial appointments of the Liberals tells another story altogether.

On January 8, 2015, Steven Guilbeault, who now serves as minister of environment and climate change, tweeted a Huffington Post article entitled “Here’s Why Keystone XL Is the Wrong Choice for Our Nation”.

Here's Why Keystone XL Is the Wrong Choice for Our Nation http://t.co/HDv6x5Jri3 by Robert Redford via @HuffPostGreen

— Steven Guilbeault (@s_guilbeault) January 8, 2015

Trade Minster Mary Ng went so far as to criticize Alberta’s challenge against the cancelling of the project under NAFTA as being against the interest of Canadians, and that tension points, like Keystone XL, should be avoided so that Canada and the U.S. can work together on other projects and environmental initiatives.

To an outside observer, it seems evident that Trudeau, Guilbeault, Ng and company were at best apathetic to the project and at the worst were actively opposed to it. I can’t help but wonder if their unwillingness to stand for Keystone XL would have been so glaring were it some Eastern interest or economic boon being mired by the Biden administration.

Despite the personal eco agendas of Trudeau’s hand-picked ministers, one would hope at the very least that some common sense would prevail and that people acting on behalf of the Canada people and Canadian economy would fight to get the job done. Unfortunately, that was not the case, elected officials weren’t the only ones unwilling to fight for the jobs and revenue that Keystone XL would generate. Kristen Hillmen, the Liberal appointed Ambassador for Canada to the United States, echoed the lack of action of Mr. Trudeau in acknowledging that Biden’s decision to scrap the pipeline project was final and that Canada would have to move on to other things and towards the future.

Kirsten Hillman, ambassadrice du Canada aux États-Unis, affirme que la décision de Joe Biden sur Keystone XL est ferme et le Canada doit passer à autres choses et regarder vers le futur. #Zoneéconomie

— Gérald Fillion (@geraldfillion) January 20, 2021

The invasion of the Ukraine has set a magnifying glass on the already glaring supply chain issue occurring worldwide, but particularly in Biden’s United States. The need for Canadian oil, particularly among our American allies, is not only the most sensible solution because of the conflict in Europe… it simply always has been the most sensible and ethical solution. Pipelines are also the most ethical and sensible way to deliver this needed resource.

Lack of support or outright opposition to something so glaringly good is a bad look. Justin Trudeau, Chrystia Freeland and the Liberals don’t get to pretend they were team Keystone XL all along. We didn’t remember this differently. This time, they get to wear the egg on their face.

If you agree with… Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland (which may be a first for most of us), that cancelling Keystone XL was a mistake, sign our petition to get the pipeline finished at BuildKeystoneXL.com.