Editor: If the Americans can extract and process their own oil — as well as our crude and logs — then we should be equally as patriotic, thus Canada first, even if it means paying slightly higher for Canadian wages than those in the U.S.

With all the jingoism over Kinder Morgan’s pipeline expansion creating jobs — and almost all of it temporary work — it’s conspicuous how there’s no mention of creating actual long-term employment by processing enough of our own crude to (at the very least) supply Canadians’ consumption needs, instead of exporting the bulk raw log resource then importing the finished product.

A similar question could be asked in regards to our raw-log softwood exports abroad.

After 30 years of consuming mainstream news media, I’ve yet to come across a seriously thorough discussion on why our national and provincial governments consistently refuse to alter this practice, which undoubtedly is the most profitable for the Texas-based oil company.

And I’m not talking about open and closed on the same day, with the topic discussion parameters constrained to the point the outcome seemed predetermined.

Frank Sterle Jr.,

White Rock