Groups of both sides of the border campaign against the oilsands ahead of Obama’s Ottawa visit
Sixteen environmentalist groups in Canada and the U.S. have joined to ask U.S. President Barack Obama to stick to his new energy plan ahead of his visit to Canada next week, despite the possibility that Ottawa may ask him to support production from the Alberta oilsands. Toronto-based Environmental Defence is one of the groups involved in the campaign, which launches today and includes an online petition at Obama2Canada.org with the banner “The tar sands don’t fit in the new energy economy.” The newspaper ad is running in Roll Call, a Capital Hill newspaper in Washington, and reads “On February 19 Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will try to sell President Obama on a North American climate pact that gives special treatment to the tarsands in Alberta, the source of the dirtiest oil on earth.”