Today@Dal

From The Canadian Press, Sunday, August 18:

To hear some proponents of the Energy East project tell it, when the taps open on the $12-billion oil pipeline the moment will be as significant as when the last spike was driven into the Canadian Pacific Railway almost 128 years ago.

Linking western crude to eastern markets would be a huge undertaking — it's the most expensive project in TransCanada Corp.'s (TSX:TRP) more than 60-year history — but some observers are dubious Energy East will one day be worthy of its own Heritage Minute.

Tugging at Canadians' patriotic heartstrings is a "smart and usable PR strategy" to get the public onside with the project, said Claire Campbell, a historian at Dalhousie University in Halifax.

"But I don't think it is going to be written about as the new national dream by historians 100 years from now."

...

Provincial politicians, albeit the two that stand most to gain from the project, were also vocal in their support. Alberta Premier Alison Redford called it "truly a nation-building project" and her New Brunswick counterpart, David Alward, called it a "game changer and historic opportunity" for the country as well as his province, home to the country's largest oil refinery.

But, according to Campbell, the historian, it was the railway's championing by the federal government that made it the "quintessential example" of a nation-building project.

In the case of Energy East, Ottawa' benefits would be in the form of increased tax revenues, with Alberta oil no longer landlocked and flowing to more lucrative markets.

Both Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver expressed support for the project, but Alberta and New Brunswick played a much more active role in promoting it.

"That's where I think the analogy of a pipeline with a railway in 1885 is a little disingenuous," said Campbell.

Read the rest of this article at The Huffington Post Canada.