In less than a week, president elect Barack Obama will be President Obama. Shortly thereafter, he’s promised he’ll be taking his act up to Ottawa for a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. As of now, no date has been set for this meeting, but Reuters is announcing agenda updates regarding the controversial oil sands issue. Many in Canada have been discussing the president-elect’s upcoming visit. Indeed, it’s the talk of the country if the CBC is to be believed on this one. They’ve even gone so far as to put together a “Canadian playlist” for the President to present to him upon his arrival.

Yeah, weird hey? Of almost equal interest in the Canadian media are the issues that the President –– who campaigned with the promise of “Change” –– will discuss with a Prime Minister who clings to power through a series of parliamentary holding patterns and whose policies over the last three years have mimicked the Bush administrations as far as the minority government’s weak mandate allowed? Where, if any, is the common ground these two share?

An aside here for those who don’t live in Canada: I figure this “minority government” business ought to be explained straight away. An editorial in the recent edition of Canadian Dimension lays it out like this:

Presently, Stephen Harper’s Conservative party does not hold a majority of seats in Parliament, but something like 144 out of 308. Over the last month, he has held on to control of the government by suspending parliament in the middle of an economic crisis. His hold on the country is tenuous, with something like 38% of votes in an election where turnout was lower than 60%. (A previous Newswire post, It's a Leftist Takeover, Canadian Style, broke it down rather well.)

What common ground could they possibly have? Stephen Harper appears like a goofy, yet sinister robot programmed into the body of a Child of the Corn, while Obama appears to be a genuinely decent person, as far as politicians run. Or maybe I’m wrong.

Time will tell –– and Reuters is telling me right now –– that Alberta’s oil sands development, a key part of the outgoing U.S. administration and Prime Minister Harper’s Conservative party’s North American (key word being “American”) “energy security” agenda. Steve admits, frankly, “We've got to do a better job environmentally” in the tar sands.

Harper then goes on to explain, however, that “the development of these things is pretty important, in our judgment, to North American energy security.” If you have heard this fucking guy talk about anything, you'll know this means he doesn’t give a shit about anyone's security but his own; He will continue in any direction that will keep Alberta’s –– and his own –– fortunes flowing. Secondary concerns, such as the environment, are quickly pushed to the side in Harper’s Canada, as proven by his track record for slashing federal funding for environmental organizations and initiatives.

The tar sands development poses serious threats to the environment, as it involves tearing down a boreal forest that covers most of the northern half of the province in order to suck oil, at massive cost in terms of money, fresh water, energy –– not to mention the ecosystem. Northern Alberta is a goddamn mess, plain and simple, and in tearing up the earth, they are wreaking major environmental damage to not only the immediate area, but the entire watershed, which flows northward into the North-West Territories, poisoning the water and food sources of many communities downstream.

Fort Chipewyan is a fucking awful example of what is happening already up there without the additional multi-billion dollar projects planned. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet were so concerned, they even scampered northwards to check out the tragic scene this past summer. The dollars invested in developing this dubious source of petroleum are staggering. Fresh water is diverted from rivers and used to steam thick bitumen oil from the soil in a process that takes approximately 4 liters of fresh water to produce 1 liter of bitumen oil. That water is then left to sit in “tailing ponds” close to the Athabasca river, where migratory birds die by the hundreds every spring and fall.

The list of fucked up shit involved when discussing the tar sands is astronomical. Just where Obama will stand on this issue, among others, will certainly set the tone for the relationship his administration will hold with Prime Minister Harper’s (minority) government –– should it last long enough to enjoy a visit from the new president. Will Stephen Harper try to navigate the waves of change and abandon his hard-nosed shit blind backwoods neocon trip for the easy sail? Time will tell, I guess. Nothing to do but sit here and wait on it…

djensen lives and writes in Winnipeg, Manitoba