Western Standard - April 07, 2022


Majority think Canada should export more Oil...offset Russia Oil.


Episode Stats

Length

2 minutes

Words per Minute

176.77368

Word Count

446

Sentence Count

18


Summary

After Ukraine was invaded by Russia, we decided to poll Canadians on the idea of Canada increasing production of oil and gas and exporting it so that the world could reduce how much it's buying from Putin's Russia and buy more from Canada. And 78% of Canadians agreed with that idea.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 So after Ukraine was invaded by Russia, we decided to poll Canadians on the idea of Canada increasing production of oil and gas and exporting it so that the world could reduce how much it's buying from Putin's Russia and buy more from Canada.
00:00:16.880 And 78% of Canadians agreed with that idea.
00:00:20.600 I think people are more and more every day, they're understanding how Putin is paying for his invasion.
00:00:25.740 He sells oil and gas to the West, and then he takes those dollars and he buys tanks and rockets, and he's invaded Ukraine with it.
00:00:34.940 So I think people are understanding that connection, that if we're going to sort of pull out the power cord that is keeping Putin's war machine going, one way to do it is to stop buying oil and gas from him.
00:00:45.540 And like I say, 78% of Canadians support the idea of us producing and exporting more.
00:00:50.300 And it's important to note that there's a huge, large majority like that right across the country, all age groups, men and women.
00:00:59.240 It's something that Canadians, I think, really support.
00:01:03.840 And another option that we polled Canadians on was, okay, well, what if we produce more oil and gas, but we took the government's corporate tax revenue and royalty revenue from these new projects and used it to reduce emissions?
00:01:19.780 And, you know, we thought, well, maybe this is one way that some elected officials might be more warm to this idea because they're trying to figure out this green component.
00:01:30.120 Whether people like it or not, a guy like Justin Trudeau is very much focused on climate change.
00:01:35.940 So we thought, well, maybe this is an alternative that might help out is to, you know, make this a concession that, okay, well, you take the money from these new projects and use it to fund emissions reduction activities.
00:01:48.200 And that actually pulled a little bit lower than the first one was about 68% of Canadians agreed with that idea.
00:01:55.160 But nonetheless, I think those are two policy options that make sense.
00:01:59.360 You know, if we're trying to figure out how we can pull the plug on Putin's war machine, a big answer or a big part of that answer is Canada's natural resources.
00:02:09.220 And then at the same time, it, I think, recognizes the fact that if we keep our resources in the ground, some other country is just going to produce more.
00:02:19.440 So we're not really helping the environment.
00:02:21.800 All we're doing as a country is missing out on economic activity.
00:02:26.460 So those are a couple of the questions that we put to Canadians to see where they stand.