- Energy in Canada: The great pipeline battle, The Economist, 26 May 2012
Well, I suppose it doesn't say that, exactly. What it does say, essentially, is that The Harper Government is getting rid of the environmental review process to prevent ignorant people from preventing much-needed energy infrastructure developments. And, really, as a country, we do need ignorant people to stop preventing much-needed energy infrastructure developments. Unfortunately, democracy requires that ignorant people be heard too. In fact, democracy is pretty much the rule of the ignorant. It's the very worst system of government, except for all the others.
As a matter of principle, we're better off having democracy than pipelines. Economically, we're not - for now. But then again, it's much easier to prevent energy reaching the ignorant people, than to try to teach them how to use it wisely. So in the long run, economically, we'll probably end up better off keeping our energy resources safely out of reach of the ignorant people. Democracy succeeding despite itself.
What's more to the point is that Harper's sham process is just as bad as inviting intervention from ignorant people. It's just a lot faster. And while I often say that a dumb plan executed with elan is usually better than a good plan with no buy-in, it doesn't follow that a dumb plan with no buy-in has any merit.
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