In the disorganized flight seven ways from Net Zero toward actual prosperity and security, even Quebec politicians, long sneering about the lack of “social licence” for energy projects that might benefit Canada, are sounding different about pipelines now that President Trump has suggested the US doesn’t need the energy they didn’t want to sell him. Premier François Legault hedged that he was still “skeptical” about whether the public supported an “Energy East” pipeline, which presumably would dictate his own principled stand. But his energy minister nonetheless blurted out that their administration might revisit the LNG-Québec project cancelled in 2021 on environmental grounds, saying “We are not opposed to energy projects that respect environmental criteria.” A bit late, as the U.S. is snapping up LNG deals Canada scorned. But better late than never.

Speaking of Quebec politicians, among the sudden converts to patriotism and the Canadian way is Justin Trudeau, our own Captain Carbon, who promised to quit but now won’t go away. Among other things, he suddenly realized nuclear power wasn’t evil. As another CP story noted:

“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that developing more electricity to power artificial intelligence will be a key priority of the G7 this year, as Canada assumes the presidency of the multinational body.”

Since he’s meant to be gone in a month, what he thinks will be a key priority of this outfit he won’t be presiding over is of questionable importance. What’s also questionable is why he was Prime Minister for 10 years and relentlessly pushed wind and solar but did nothing on nuclear, only suddenly to realize that it might just be the answer to reliable energy with minimal GHG emissions.

He always was a lovely talker and still is. “With our G7 partners, we will be working to make sure the innovators have access to clean, reliable energy to power AI without hindering the fight against climate change,” he told some roundtable of tech bros and bureaucrats and added:

“To do so, we must build the infrastructure necessary to achieve this at the speed that matches AI development, and nuclear technologies will be a crucial part of the solution.”

Pardon us while we don’t swoon. You spent 10 years making it impossible to build so much as a lemonade stand and now you want nuclear reactors at the speed of AI? Pray teleport out the door.

Even the raggedly leftist Council of Canadians now wants “a Made-in-Canada energy policy” along with “international cooperation and peace”. So nationalism if necessary, but not necessarily nationalism. And what they’d make and how is anyone’s guess.

The U.S. does in fact need Canadian oil, whatever ill-informed views President Trump may have on the subject. And it needs it more than ever as Mexico is apparently watering theirs to the dismay of refiners on the Gulf of Whatever. But if there aren’t enough pipelines to carry it, blame climate-obsessed leaders on both sides of the border, from Obama to Biden to yes Trudeau. So have they really seen the light after feeling the heat (or lack of it)? Or are they just thrashing about trying to sound plausible?

P.S. The Australian government is making an equally ataxic effort to distance itself from environmental extremism and revive the resource and energy sector. Better late than never. But it would be nice if they actually knew something about the sources of prosperity.