Cacouna, Couillard and the Ties that Bind
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- Published on Thursday, 16 October 2014 21:00
- Written by editor
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 1048 .... October 17, 2014
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Cacouna, Couillard and the Ties that Bind
Quebec Government’s Love Affair with Big Oil
Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois
It's an evening like any other. The first item on the Téléjournal is about the controversial Cacouna oil port project. The journalist speaks to citizens in favour of and opposed to the project. Then the spokesperson for TransCanada, the project's sponsor, appears onscreen. His talking points aren't particularly noteworthy, but his face is strangely familiar. I've seen it before, but where? For hours, the question nagged at me. Later that evening, it came to me in a flash: we had crossed paths during the summer of 2012 in Quebec, during negotiations between the student movement and the Jean Charest government.
I pulled up the Alberta company's website... and confirmed my suspicions: its Quebec spokesperson was indeed Philippe Cannon, chief of staff to Line Beauchamp during her tumultuous term as Minister of Education, Recreation and Sport. I stopped for a second and realized that prior to holding this post, Beauchamp had been Minister of ... Environment! Could the spokesperson for Energy East really have been this close to power before becoming a lobbyist?
Further research revealed that the professional record of Mr. Cannon was impressive: Liberal candidate in 2007, he has served as chief of staff to two Liberal ministers and as press secretary to Beauchamp during her time in the environment portfolio. Today he holds the title of lobbyist and spokesperson for TransCanada, a private company seeking authorization for its marquee project from the same department. This troubling situation brings three questions to mind.
