Go Ad Free

Ontario Premier Doug Ford shared a recent epiphany this week, seemingly recognizing for the first time that Canadian oil and natural gas travel down into the United States before coming back up into Ontario.

Asked about his conversation with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, Ford said the pair “get along quite well” despite disagreeing “on certain items,” and credited Smith with the ideas behind rerouting natural gas lines and eventually Line 5.

Then came the moment that stopped the room: “Right now, we're getting our fuel and our natural gas coming down to the U.S. and coming back up to Canada. Craziest thing I've ever heard in my life.”

Ford went on to praise the plan to build new pipeline capacity so Canada isn't “reliant on the U.S.,” adding: “Isn't that amazing that we have energy sovereignty once we build this pipeline?” — seemingly unaware that a coast-to-coast pipeline called Energy East was already on the table nearly a decade ago before it was cancelled.

On Thursday's Rebel Roundup livestream, Sheila Gunn Reid and Lise Merle reacted to the clip, which left them just as astounded as Ford.

"How is it possible that he didn't know until just now, after Danielle Smith got off the phone with him two days ago, where he gets the energy in Ontario from?" asked Sheila. "Someone should tell Doug Ford that there was a West-to-East pipeline on the table, and billions of dollars had been spent to get it over the finish line — and then the Liberals changed the rules in the middle."

That would be the Energy East pipeline project, which collapsed in October 2017, roughly two years into Justin Trudeau's first mandate. The project was derailed after Ottawa scrapped the National Energy Board's technical review process and replaced it with a broader process that, in Sheila's words, considers “how the local feminists' ovaries feel about it” and “how many bees' feelings get hurt by the bad vibes.” TC Energy, formerly TransCanada, ultimately abandoned the project rather than clear the new hurdles.

Doug Ford's approach to the energy industry, particularly when it comes to the tariff dispute with the United States, hasn't inspired confidence either, said Lise.

"There's no appetite in the West to join this crazy, harebrained approach, and especially not with guys like Doug Ford and Jason Kenney, and Rachel Notley," said Lise. "We don't want to do what those losers did."

"Job killers, all of them," added Sheila. 

Danielle Smith has laid out in blunt terms what would happen if Ottawa cut off or taxed Alberta's oil exports to the U.S., as these individuals have advocated.

"Doing so would absolutely devastate the Canadian economy," Smith warned, adding it would "not only extinguish the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Albertans," but also "economically hobble our friends and neighbours in other provinces to the east."

"So do you get it now, Doug Ford?" Sheila asked. "She's actually trying to save your economy from you."