[Four articles on the reaction to the Leap Manifesto, first from Rabble]

Rather than fearing the Leap Manifesto, let's bring on the debate

That silly Leap Manifesto -- giving itself away right in the subtitle, which calls for "a Canada based on caring for the Earth and one another." No wonder it provoked fury and outrage.

The Tsleil-Waututh Nation said Tuesday they have no intention of backing down in the face of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recently revealed support for Kinder Morgan’s $5.4-billion Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project.

The National Post reported Monday that the prime minister has told his senior lieutenants to draw up plans to make the Energy East pipeline and the Trans Mountain expansion a reality.

It may scare some New Democrats, but this sketchy recipe for fighting climate change is not particularly left-wing.

The short document, available on-line, can arouse fierce passions.

Justin Trudeau has told his senior lieutenants to draw up plans to make the Energy East pipeline and the Trans Mountain expansion in British Columbia a reality.

The prime minister has been convinced by his finance minister, Bill Morneau, and other influential voices around the cabinet table that the pipelines have to be built to achieve the ambitious economic growth targets his government has set.

But the problem for the Liberals is that this conviction has to be conveyed subtly to a public that has decidedly mixed views on oilsands expansion and pipelines.

“I won’t let up,” Alberta Premier Rachel Notley told delegates to the NDP’s national convention last week. “We must get to ‘yes’ on a pipeline.” She repeated that message Saturday, asking the convention to support “pipelines to tidewater that allow us to diversify our markets.”

In doing so, Premier Notley just became the latest Canadian politician to play games with pipelines. She’s telling Albertans a pipeline to tidewater can cure what ails the industry. It won’t — it can’t — because the problem a pipeline to tidewater was intended to address doesn’t exist anymore.

Download: Oil spills in your backyard: What BC’s coastal communities need to know

There are over a dozen major new export projects currently proposed on both sides of the Canada/US border. This means that shipping traffic passing through the Salish Sea is set to rise dramatically, bringing with it a significant increase in the risk of an oil spill.

The idea that greater pipeline capacity and access to tidewater would maximize the value Alberta receives for its tar sands crude is a standard talking point for industry, politicians, and other commentators in the ongoing oil price-induced recession in Alberta.

October 14, 2015 - 2:19pm

CALGARY — Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, once a reluctant defender of the oilpatch, now says she won’t take no for an answer on getting a bitumen pipeline to tidewater.

The NDP premier made the pledge in a televised speech to Albertans on Thursday evening, a week before presenting a budget that will come with a $10-billion-plus deficit and help for the needy as the once oil-rich province struggles with a price shock that has destroyed government revenue, investment and jobs.