Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi was in Ottawa earlier this month to attend a 2 day conference with other ‘big city’ mayors. While there, he took on the petty anti-Energy East pipeline stances from Quebec mayors and the unfair Keystone XL trade practices from the United States when he spoke at Ottawa City Town Hall. Mayor Nenshi vocally supported his province’s oil & gas industry, and the need to build better market access to achieve Canadian energy independence. He expounded on the massive tax and job creation benefits of the Energy East and Trans Mountain pipelines, in support of long term prosperity for Canada as a whole.

Satirist Rick Mercer has just said what a lot of Canadians in Western Canada have been thinking… Energy East has nothing to do with Montreal or Quebec. So if that’s the case, why is Quebec Mayor Denis Coderre so opposed to the pipeline? According to Mercer, Mayor Coderre believes, “There’s not enough in it for Montreal … There’s not enough money in it for Quebec”. Many would say he’s biting the hand that feeds him. Quebec received 9.5 billion in transfer payments last year alone and Alberta is a large contributor to those transfer payments. Mercer believes we should be banding together as a country and as Canadian’s first. The economic stimulus created by the Energy East pipeline extends far beyond Alberta and Western Canada, it would benefit all of Canada.