Project Alberta

With that Louisiana oil gusher blackening beaches, Michael Ignatieff's pledge this week to ban oil tankers from the northern B.C. coast would appear to be a political no-brainer. But the Liberal leader is sacrificing practical realities for political expediency.

While oil tankers now prowl Canada's east and west coasts and roll up the St. Lawrence River to Montreal without the public giving it a second thought, Mr. Ignatieff's plan would banish tankers from a safer port in northern B.C. and kill much-needed jobs and investment in the region.

Mr. Ignatieff's vow, should he ever become prime minister, singles out for a ban one vital link -- between the oil sands and China's voracious energy thirst -- that would give the oil sands a competitive alternative to an America that views the resource as dirty energy to be priced at a discount. The Northern Gateway proposal, a 1,200-kilometre, $5.5-billion pipeline linking Edmonton to the West Coast by 2016, would send 525,000 barrels a day to markets like China, which has an ownership stake in the oil sands.