On preordained outcomes

Joe Oliver is trying to pretend that the National Energy Board actually gets to determine whether the Northern Gateway pipeline gets approved:

Oliver avoided directly answering a question as to whether Ottawa would ram through approval should the project get the thumbs down, but acknowledged the outcome is rarely negative.

He said the government would certainly follow any conditions the panel might recommend in order to give the project the green light.

But lest we forget: it's the Cons who have decreed that the NEB has no authority to say "no" to the Gateway based on environmental effects - even if it determines that the pipeline will result in the extinction of humanity, or at least a steady stream of supertankers running aground up to 500 metres above sea level onto pristine islands. And while the Cons may be counting on the media being gullible enough to believe that the NEB's conspicuous lack of authority to nix the Gateway for environmental reasons means that it's giving the thumbs up, we shouldn't be so easily fooled.