Former American VP Al Gore, who managed to lose a can't-miss chance for election in 2000 in part by proving too radical for his home state to support, has inexplicably decided to scold Canadians for voting out the scandal-plagued Liberals from government. In a fresh tirade yesterday, he claimed that Canadian voters got duped by "Big Oil" into allowing the minority Tory government to take power, a mystifying allegation given Canada's political-contribution limits:

Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore has accused the oil industry of financially backing the Tories and their "ultra-conservative leader" to protect its stake in Alberta's lucrative oilsands.

Canadians, Gore said, should vigilantly keep watch over prime minister-designate Stephen Harper because he has a pro-oil agenda and wants to pull out of the Kyoto accord -- an international agreement to combat climate change.

"The election in Canada was partly about the tar sands projects in Alberta," Gore said Wednesday while attending the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

"And the financial interests behind the tar sands project poured a lot of money and support behind an ultra-conservative leader in order to win the election . . . and to protect their interests."

I doubt that Gore reads Captain's Quarters, so he is probably unaware of the reason the Tories tossed the Liberals out of office. Harper ran on tightening restrictions on political contributions to eliminate corporate donations altogether, while the entire Adscam scandal involved kickback schemes and political money-laundering on behalf of Paul Martin, Jean Chretien, and Liberal Party leadership during its twelve-year reign. Besides, in a parliamentary system, the tar sands of Alberta would hardly have political play in Ontario or the Maritimes, and since Alberta has been a Conservative power base for some time, "Big Oil" wouldn't need to spend too much anyway in getting CPC candidates elected in their ridings. (The CPC carried all of the Alberta ridings in the election.)

Why would Gore think that such an effort would go unremarked during the campaign, especially given the nastiness of the Liberal advertisements? Gore says that "media concentration" kept the truth from the Canadian people:

Gore believes the issue of the oilsands and the sway he contends the industry holds with Harper didn't garner news coverage during the election because "media concentration has taken a toll on democratic principles around the world, and Canada is no exception."

Sorry, Canada. We thought Al Gore had enough to engage his paranoia here at home. We didn't think he'd get bored enough with his conspiracy theories long enough to attack the integrity of the Canadian electoral process. Apparently, Gore never met an election he didn't detest.

UPDATE: Forgot the link to the story!

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