Is Chalk River typical of Conservative "competence" or an expression of a colonial mentality?

A lot of us have been aghast at the staggering cluster-f**k the Conservatives have made of the isotope crisis over the last 18 months. And it is getting worse*

It is hard for Canadians who are proud of their nation and want to see Canada build on it's accomplishments to come to terms with this apparent incompetence. How can seemingly capable people, advised by a professional bureaucracy, not have done a better job in responding to this crisis?

But if, like Harper and his klutzy clique, you are a Calgary Cretin you have a colonial mentality towards Canada's relationship towards the United States. You grew up in a city with an economy based on an industry pioneered by Americans. The technology was developed in the U. S. and brought to Canada by Americans. A significant amount of the capital necessary to develop the resources came form the south as well. The primary market for the oil and gas they discovered was in the south as well. Canada's place in the world was to provide the resources necessary for the American Empire. To suggest anything else is "Anti-American" and seditious.

Notwithstanding that Calgarians have leveraged the American initiation of the petroleum industry and become world leaders in oil and gas technology; the Canadian purpose is to serve the U.S.A. So if the Canadian nuclear industry vanishes; "C'est dommage. It is a shame but being a world leader in a highly technical field is not our station". In their world view, a patriotic Canadian focuses on maintaining the hewer of wood role. They can't help fix the reactor problem because in their view the problem is that we have the reactors in the first place.

The rest of us get frustrated because they have bungled this issue so badly but we are expecting them to do something they are mentally incapable of doing. Selling off AECL and getting out of the isotope business is the path to take if you believe that Canadians should focus on mining the yellowcake and shipping it to the States.

John Ralston Saul has written on the phenomenon of the transference of the Canadian colonial deference to the U.S.A. from Great Britain in Reflections of a Siamese Twin and most recently in A Fair Country. An excerpt from a fair country that discussing the colonial mentality with regards to the selection of Ottawa as our capital can be found here.

*Keeping that list up to date may be a full time job for Buckets.

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