[CaptainCrunch]

Like I said, this is a good first step, but I still have my doubts that we'll see these pipelines under construction for a good long time.

There is no way that and ignoring the whole eco protests threat because that's easy to deal with (arrest them and drop them off in the middle of the forest without a map) that this isn't going to be delayed and tied up in court for years.

As some have pointed out Harper did approve pipelines but the courts killed them, this is going to happen here because the whole consultation with indigenous groups is a nebulous concept at best and how much consultation is enough has yet to be defined, and I doubt could be defined.

I would expect that this will be an election issue in the next federal election and that the shovels won't be in the ground by then.

Like I said, I give Trudeau all kinds of credit for going against his voting base and burning a lot of political capital in just issuing approvals. But the good thing for Trudeau now is he can say he approved it, he doesn't have a course to do anymore, he can't contravene the courts and there's nothing he can do about the protesters except bring in the water canons.

What he does have to do is remind the provinces and the municipalities that this is a federal issue under the constitution and to shut their pie holes.