Easterners could freeze in the dark

After being cut off by the Conservative chair during his presentation to a parliamentary hearing on continental integration a couple of weeks ago, Gordon Laxer finally got to say his piece in yesterday’s Globe and Mail.

Judge for yourself whether Laxer’s remarks were “not relevant.”

Easterners could freeze in the dark

The U.S. has a national energy policy that emphasizes self-sufficiency, energy independence and domestic ownership. Why don’t we?

GORDON LAXER

Globe and Mail

May 28, 2007

At a meeting of the House of Commons’ international trade committee earlier this month, Leon Benoit, the Conservative chairman, ordered me to stop my presentation as an invited witness. My remarks, he ruled, were not relevant. When his decision was successfully challenged by other members of the committee, Mr. Benoit adjourned the meeting and left the room.

I was astonished. I had spent several days preparing for my presentation, and two days in transit. Later, I learned that Mr. Benoit’s behaviour may have been prompted by a secret guidebook for Conservative chairmen, designed to interrupt witnesses challenging government positions.

If so, it backfired. Suppression intrigues people. They want to know what caused the storm.

I was cut off after noting that the United States has a National Energy Policy (a NEP) that emphasizes self-sufficiency, energy independence and domestic ownership.

And while Canada, as part of our bilateral Security and Prosperity Partnership initiative, supports U.S. efforts to wean itself off Middle Eastern oil, I noted that we do not have a NEP of our own.

Read the full article.