Dear Editor,
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has taken the world’s attention away from Prime Minister Trudeau and Canada. President Putin has replaced our prime minister as ‘Despot of the Year’.
Now Trudeau, U.S. President Biden and the European leaders are competing for the spineless hypocrite title. All are placing sanctions on Russia which Putin is laughing at. The sanctions that could get his attention, none are imposing.
Canada and the USA import Russian oil and Europe particularly Germany is reliant on Russian natural gas as well as oil. None want to sanction the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline although Germany is pretending to.
SWIFT banking is a sanction which could hurt the Russians, but conveniently doesn’t take effect for a month.
Germany is vulnerable to energy shortages as they have abandoned the most reliable source of energy– nuclear, shutting down half their plants with plans to shut down the rest this year.
When President Biden was elected the USA was energy self sufficient in my opinion. He immediately changed that with his policies, the first day cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline and then stopping exploration on Federal land and other measures.
They now depend on foreign oil. Canada under Prime Minister Trudeau still imports oil, including from Russia.
Trudeau cancelled Northern Gateway, worked with Quebec to kill Energy East, regulated Kinder Morgan to a standstill, then bought it for $4.5 billion, the estimated cost today is 21.4 billion and completion sometime in 2023.
If not for Trudeau and President Biden North America could have been in a position to supply Europe with the energy they need. The Green movement, including our Prime Minister, the US President and the German Chancellor in my opinion have enabled Russia to be in control because of their need for oil and gas. Solar and wind power is not cutting it.
The pathetic performance of President Biden has emboldened Putin as he fears no consequences. A side effect of Biden’s weakness and incompetence will be China moving on Taiwan.
Energy self-sufficiency and and an armed citizenry are two of the pillars of a strong country. Both Trudeau and Biden are working hard to destroy both.
It looks like the people of Ukraine are putting up more of a fight than Putin anticipated fighting with rifles and Molotov cocktails in the streets.
Hopefully some learn that it is better to have an armed citizenry before the invasion than during.
Wokeness equals Weakness equals War. Peace is achieved through Strength.
Gord Snell
Three Hills, Alta.
