NDP about-face on oilsands?

Picture of Mulclair cowboying up.
From the article. No news yet  on
whether or not he's expecting.

Maclean's has an interesting story about an apparent reversal in the NDP on the oilsands. Thomas Mulclair, the party's leader, has recently been in Calgary making pretty positive noises at a bunch of oil people. They would now be "a partner for the development of Canada's energy resources", apparently.

This is of course a big change from the party's position in the past, where he blamed the oilsands for eastern Canada's economic woes as well as the standard environmental criticism.

Mulclair changes tack on oil sands opposition

Mulclair in a suitably unflattering
picture.
From www.stephentaylor.ca

Thomas Mulclair, the leader of the federal NDP, is somewhat changing his tune on the oil sands. Whereas before he criticised them on economic grounds, now he's gone back to tried and true environmental criticism.

NDP blames oil sands for loss of manufacturing jobs

Thomas Mulclair, the new leader of the federal NDP, criticized Alberta's oil sands last week, saying they raise the value of the dollar which hurts manufacturing jobs in eastern Canada. This is quite similar to the position Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty (unexpectedly) took during the recent Alberta election. Mulclair claims in the last 6 years "500,000 good paying manufacturing jobs" have been lost because of the oil sands. I disagree, as outlined after the break.