"Canada Revs Up for Fight Over Second Tar Sands Oil Pipeline"

"Fort St. James, Canada -- The prime minister is talking about being 'held hostage' by U.S. interests. Radio ads blare, 'Stand up to this foreign bully.' A Twitter account tells of a 'secret plan to target Canada: exposed!'"



"Could this be Canada? The cheerful northern neighbor: supplier of troops to unpleasant U.S.-led foreign conflicts, reliable trade partner, ally in holding terrorism back from North America's shores, not to mention the No. 1 supplier of America's oil?

Canada's recent push for the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline to carry oil from the tar sands of Alberta to the nation's West Coast, where it would be sent to China, has been marked by uncharacteristic defiance. And it first flared in the brouhaha over the bananas.

Responding to urgings from U.S. environmentalists, Ohio-based Chiquita Brands International Inc. announced in November that it would join a growing number of companies trying to avoid fuel derived from Canada's tar sands, whose production is blamed for accelerating climate change and leveling boreal forests."

Kim Murphy reports for the Los Angeles Times February 19, 2012.

Source: LA Times, 02/20/2012