We Better Watch Out

We better watch out, we better not shout, we better be careful, I'm telling you why: Bush is on the prowl. The United States of America is, in case it has slipped anyone's notice, power hungry. No, not that kind of power, although truth to tell, that kind of power above all. Energy, we're talking energy sources here. Yes, they've plenty of energy as well, they're great entrepreneurs, and businesspeople, and capitalists par excellence. Not that, though.

Energy resources, gas, oil. See now what I mean? They've got their own national resources, true, (think of all those oil wells in Texas) but they're insufficient to their needs. And their needs don't appear to be abating, no not at all. They get a lot of oil and gas from Venezuela, from Canada, from the Middle East. But guess what? It's not enough; it's never enough. Not that the U.S. administration isn't aware of the situation, that they're using too much of the world's non-renewable resources. But hey, this is the U.S. Canada any better? Not on your life.

Still, we're not the ones making the moves on the U.S. Never have been, historically. We've always had to watch out; watch our fronts, watch our backs. Never more so than now. We're busting our energy guts extracting energy resources, wasting other resources to do so, to maintain our good-neighbour relationship, and now this. (In any trade disputes with the U.S., for example, and there have been many, Canada gets burned. Even when fairness and truth and international legal courts bolsters Canada's position; no matter.)

This? Well, yes. The Bush administration appears to be urging the U.S. Senate to approve their joining the international treaty on the Law of the Sea. Nice enough on the face of it; we've been members since 2003, and it's been ratified by no fewer than 152 countries of the world. Why now the U.S., always averse to joining groups it suspects will involve it in activities it isn't fond of participating in, in the very real fears they will stultify its purpose?

Well, in this instance, to give to the U.S. the legal tools it seeks internationally to press forward with its claims to an energy-rich portion of the Beaufort Sea. Well, understandable. Except that this is territory that Canada has always claimed ownership of. "That tells me we're probably going to be winding up in a dispute," according to Rob Huebert of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary.

Can't say Canadians haven't seen it coming. The area in contention is rich in oil and gas potential.