total pulling out of canada has been an ongoing process, but it's an intriguing one.

total has very deep ties to the canadian deep state, in it's relationship to this entity called power corp. i'm not going to run over this, but look it up. it's this company in canada that acts as a major revolving door for politicians coming out of all three of the major parties, but is particularly closely related to the liberals, who are of course currently in power.

so, how do you read this? the relationships are so close, that...if this is just business, it's a very damning reflection on the future of the tar sands, which would be good news if true, but....

i think there's actually two more likely possibilities:

1) they're trying to ruin kenney. if that's the truth, i hope they succeed. but, they'll be back in a few years...
2) this fracture in the liberal party between the desmarais clique (that runs power corp) and the ruling party is actually quite deep, to the point that they're more concerned about the current global unpopularity of canada and are essentially trying to distance themselves from it. if that's the case, this is essentially a bad breakup, and it could put a lot of pressure on trudeau to get out of the way.

trudeau is still leading the polls here, but it's partly a reflection of the opposition being in disarray. the conservatives have recently started loudly calling for his removal.

i don't think trudeau has anywhere to go but down in the polls, but he's still winning just right now. his days appear to be numbered...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/suncor-total-fort-hills-conocophillips-tim-mcmillan-1.5668095