it's not surprising. let's take a step back.

when trudeau was running for prime minister, he made it clear that he saw the purpose of the review process as a means to rubber stamp industry initiatives. his concern was that the process had been overly politicized by a conservative government that had openly ridiculed the premise of looking to science for evidence. in his view, that created a backlash that was slowing down growth. the problem wasn't whether the government was really consulting evidence or not - this did not matter - but the perception that they were anti-science, which abolished their credibility on the topic. the solution is for the government to pay greater lip service to science, so that canadians would not offer such resistance to industry.

trudeau seems to have actually believed that the protests would stop if people had more trust in the government. then, industry would have a free hand.

mulcair and the ndp said all of the same things, and often times in much clearer language - because mulcair is the policy wonk, and trudeau is the pr front.

this is of course the broader truth in the trudeau government - that everything is image, that truth is subjective, that it doesn't matter what the facts are so much as it matters how people perceive them. it's a softer kind of neo-liberalism. but, it's the same hogwash, under the surface.

and, when i saw him pick jim carr, i knew this was coming. he was sent for exactly this reason.

the thing is that they're still a lesser evil. i've pointed out repeatedly that it was clear that this was coming, and that it's unfortunate and that it needs to be fought on the ground. but, they're still the only one of the three major parties with a transition strategy.

the reason this is important to the federal government is that it pulls in a huge amount of tax revenue on oil exports. it is the difference between whether they can balance a budget or not. and, so long as we send the message that budgets should be balanced, they will support oil exports.

http://www.nationalobserver.com/2016/11/30/news/scientists-dont-know-what-evidence-trudeau-used-approve-pipelines