Moving beyond the petrostate: northern gateway, extractivism, and the Canadian petrobloc

Abstract

This article explores the conflict related to the proposed Northern Gateway project between 2010 and 2015, examining claims that an overdependence on oil and gas had rendered Canada a “petrostate.” It argues the “petrostate thesis” is misleading for a multiparty democracy, such as Canada, and offers an alternative Gramscian framework: the Canadian Petrobloc. It then uses social network and discourse analysis to explore how key Petrobloc actors coordinated an emergent response to the anti-Gateway opposition across multiple fields.

Keywords:

• Canada
• extractivism
• oil and gas
• oil sands
• political economy
• propaganda

Acknowledgements

My thanks to Professor Shane Gunster, who provided valuable suggestions throughout the research stage, and to Helena Krobath, whose help revising this paper greatly improved it.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Cayley-Daoust and Girard, “Big Oil”; Nikiforuk, Tar Sands, 11.

2 McCreary and Milligan, “Pipelines, Permits,” 128; Remillard, “Picturing Environmental Risk,” 130.

3 Davidson and Gismondi, “Challenging Legitimacy,” 69.

4 “Challenging Legitimacy,” 69; Nikiforuk, “Oh Canada”; See note 1 above.

5 Hoberg, “The Battle Over Oil Sands Access to Tidewater,” 371–39.

6 Taber, “PM Brands.”

7 See note 1 above; Gutstein, Harperism, 136–89; See note 4 above.

8 See note 5.

9 Karl, “Over a Barrel.”

10 “Over a Barrel.”

11 See note 1 above. See note 4 above.

12 See note 5.

13 “Challenging Legitimacy.”

14 Harris, Party of One.

15 See note 5.

16 CANSIM. All calculations using Statistics Canada data are based on constant 2007 dollars.

17 OPEC, “Saudi Arabia”; OPEC, “Qatar.”

18 See note 16.

19 Fast, “Stapled.”

20 See note 16.

21 See note 17.

22 OPEC, “Nigeria.”

23 Gramsci, Prison Notebooks, 263.

24 Prison Notebooks, 264.

25 Fast, “Stapled to the Front Door,” 31–60.

26 Barney, “Who We Are”; Boychuk, “Misplaced Generosity,” 4, 7, 30–34; Campanella, “Misplaced Generosity”; Pratt, “Pipelines and Pipe Dreams,” 54.

27 Davidson and Gismondi, “Challenging Legitimacy.”

28 Nikiforuk, Tar Sands, 184.

29 Boychuk, “Misplaced Generosity,” 34.

30 Fast, “Stapled,” 44.

31 Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada, Decade Ahead.

32 Boychuk, “Misplaced Generosity”.

33 Saskatoon, “Key Industries”; Department of Finance, “Economy,” 22.

34 See note 1.

35 Bricker and Ibbitson, Big Shift; Gutstein, Conspiracy Theory; See note 7 above; See note 14 above; Sawer and Laycock, “Down with Elites,” 195–50.

36 See note 32 above; See note 26 above; Nikiforuk, Tar Sands, 175–85.

37 See note 7 above; See note 35 above; Hoggan and Littlemore, Climate Cover-up.

38 Gutstein, Conspiracy Theory, 120.

39 Gutstein, Harperism, 51–52.

40 Mato, “Transnational Relations,” 427.

41 See note 7.

42 Gutstein, Conspiracy Theory, 152–59.

43 Stone, Political Imagination, 94.

44 Raso and Neubauer, “Managing Dissent,” 115–33.

45 See note 35; See note 7; See note 37; See note 44.

46 Neubauer, “Manufacturing Junk.”

47 See note 35; See note 46.

48 Bourdieu, “Political Field,” 29–47.

49 Benson and Neveu, “Introduction,” 1–28.

50 Davidson and Gismondi, “Challenging Legitimacy,” 80–90.

51 See note 5.

52 “The Battle Over Oil Sands Access to Tidewater,” 370–75.

53 See note 5 above; Panofsky, Aboriginal Engagement, 14–15.

54 Panofsky, Lessons from the Canyon, 20–30.

55 Hoberg, “The Battle Over Oil Sands Access to Tidewater,” 365–80; Panofsky, Lessons from the Canyon, 16, 21.

56 See note 44.

57 Brown et al., Oilsands Expansion.

58 See note 5 above; Lee, Pipe Dreams.

59 See note 5 above. Stendie, Public Participation.

60 Gilchrist, Community Hearing.

61 See note 5.

62 See note 9.

63 See note 35; See note 7; See note 37; Micklethwait and Wooldridge, Conservative Power; See note 43.

64 See note 35; See note 7.

65 See note 35.

66 Civitas, “Welcome.”

67 See note 7; See note 44.

68 See note 40.

69 Atlas Network, “Global Directory.”

70 Gustein, Harperism.

71 Macdonald Laurier Institute, “Welcome to the Macdonald Laurier Institute.”

72 Ethical Oil, “About Ethical Oil.”

73 O’Neil, “Ethical Oil.”

74 Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power.

75 For social network analysis findings, unless otherwise stated, a “tie” between a sampled organization and another organization represents a sample actor’s current or previous history being employed by, sitting on the board of, or being hosted or being published by the second organization.

76 See note 1.

77 Gutstein, Harperism, 64.

78 See note 7.

79 Harperism, 53.

80 See note 35.

81 Gutstein, Harperism, 14–15.

82 Harperism, 56.

83 Harperism, 147.

84 Hoggan and Littlemore, Climate Cover-up, 163.

85 See note 46.

86 Gunster and Saurette, “Storylines in the Sands.”

87 Oliver, An Open Letter.

88 Open Letter.

89 Enbridge, “Northern Gateway receives.”

90 Macdonald Laurier Institute, “Rescuing Northern Gateway.”

91 Macdonald Laurier Institute, “Commentary.”

92 Krause, “Money Trail.”

93 See note 87.

94 Oliver, Notes for Remarks.

95 Ethical Oil, “Foreign Meddlers.”

96 Graham, “Approval Process.”

97 Ellerton, “Oil Industry.”

98 Ellerton, “Ethical Oil.”

99 Coulthard, Red Skin, White Masks, 160.

100 Scoffield, “Documents Reveal.”

101 See note 94.

102 See note 96.

103 “Approval Process.”

104 Hume et al., “Red Tide.”

105 Tasker, “Trudeau Cabinet.”

106 Do, “Justin Trudeau’s Environmental Plan.”

107 See note 105 above.

108 See note 57 above.

109 Press, “Liberal Campaign.”

110 Crowley, “Energy East.”

111 Coates, “Indigenous Peoples.”

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship administered by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Notes on contributors

Robert Joseph Neubauer

Robert Joseph Neubauer is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.