We cats have never understood why American media don't much cover Canada. Sure, the news there can be — pardon our pun — provincial. But what happens in the True North, our largest trading partner, can have a startling effect on U.S. policies and programs.
(A happy sidebar to this pathetic state of affairs is that someone creative managed to make a profit out of Americans' ignorance of Canada. Good on them.)
But meanwhile, a story has emerged that is neither provincial (although it happened in Quebec) or paltry. A runaway train ferrying crude oil has incinerated a small town called Lac-Megantic — and even before all the bodies have been collected, the fossil-fuel industry and its friends in high places have been hinting at the dangers of rail.
Surely, they have begun to posit, a pipeline would be safer.
Would it? We cats are unconvinced. Rail is one of the safest forms of land transport, and this incident has all the hallmarks of bizarre freakishness. But trust Prime Minister Stephen Harper, The Calgary Herald and other fans of big oil to already start the drumbeat: Keystone, Keystone, Keystone. (Of course, abandoning fossil fuels in favor of clean energy like solar and wind is the answer — but we realize this will not be accomplished tomorrow. So we're left with this nagging pipeline debate.)
We cats have taken heart from President Obama's recent caution on Keystone. But in the wake of this disaster in a tiny village that no one had ever heard of in Quebec, we fear that Harper is burning up the phone lines to his friends in Washington — and that the Keystone promoters will use this horrific accident to make their dreams a reality.
Unless Americans wake up and realize what's going on. Will they? We cats don't know whether to HISS or PURR. Stay tuned.
P.S. We haven't even touched on Mexico in this post. That was deliberate. Americans' ignorance of our neighbor to the south, and the fallout thereof, is so overwhelming that it makes us dizzy. In fact, please pass us the tuna-flavored smelling salts. Thank you.
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