Frankly Speaking

Justin Trudeau is following in his father's footsteps after Monday's federal election - emerging with a minority government in his second election after the Trudeaumania wave disappeared. Canada emerged very divided from the election on Monday, and the first act of the three national party leaders after the results were in did not bode well for future co-operation. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke in Montreal just after Conservative leader Andrew Scheer began to speak in Regina. Scheer took to the stage while NDP leader Jagmeet Singh was winding up his remarks in Burnaby. The Liberals won a minority government, with 157 seats. Most of those seats are concentrated in the Toronto and Montreal areas, and in the Atlantic provinces. They were shut out in Saskatchewan and Alberta, and their B.C. presence is concentrated around Vancouver. They have no B.C. seats outside Metro Vancouver. The Conservatives have 121 seats, including ...

Construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project will continue, but under federal ownership. The federal government is taking over Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain pipeline and obligation to twin the pipeline, for $4.5 billion. The federal government announced today (early this morning, in fact) that it will spend $4.5 billion to buy the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline, and continue construction of the twinned pipeline between Edmonton and Burnaby. This wasn't too surprising, given Kinder Morgan's deadline of May 31 for a final decision on whether to proceed with the project, given the protests, court challenges and intractable opposition of the B.C. government. Black Press has done an excellent series on this project, giving extensive background to explain its many ramifications. The intent is to help readers get a more detailed understanding of the controversial Kinder Morgan pipeline twinning project. The project has prompted plenty of p...