Marc Lee sounds off on Enbridge

Economist Marc Lee of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has developed a well-deserved reputation for speaking truth to power.

He's been the most perceptive critic of Premier Christy Clark's fantastical dream of shipping liquefied natural gas to Asia.

In the more distant past Lee did stellar work demonstrating how former premier Gordon Campbell's tax cuts benefited the wealthy over the middle class.

Now, Lee is teeing off on Enbridge in a policy note on the CCPA website, claiming that the company's brand has "become mud" in this province.

Lee even suggests that "historians may look back on this moment as the beginning of the end of pipeline politics".

"So the betting odds are that this pipeline will never get built," Lee writes. "Even the federal decision came at the last minute, without ministerial fanfare, advertising campaign or the term 'Harper government' on the media release. Moreover, by igniting a BC-based opposition, the 21 seats the Conservatives hold in BC could be the difference between a renewed majority or not in the 2015 election."

He points out that Enbridge "promoted maps missing islands" along the proposed shipping route, "peddled grossly inflated job claims based on shoddy moddelling", and "made claims of First Nations support that disappeared in the daylight".

You can read Lee's full analysis here.