Editor:

When there were 2,200 jobs lost in Ontario it becomes a national tragedy.

When there are over 20,000 jobs lost in the Alberta oil patch there is hardly any noticeable awareness from the Liberal government in Ottawa.

The closure of the GM plant in Ontario is not a good thing for workers and for Canada but the way the oil industry in Alberta has been treated by a past and present federal government is a national disgrace.

Canada is one of the few countries in the world with huge reserves of oil. It is the only country in the world that can鈥檛 get its oil to a salt water port for export.

Now there is growing evidence that American oil companies have conspired to make sure that Alberta oil will always be landlocked.

There are no Canadian oil companies in existence. They have all been bought out by American or foreign interests.

The growing evidence is that the American interests have financed environmental interest groups to protest and blockade any proposed pipeline that will let Canada access salt water for export. These groups have prostituted themselves to the oil industry.

Why are the American interests doing this?

When you鈥檙e receiving a million barrels of oil a day at a discount price you will do anything not to jeopardize that billion-dollar-a-year situation.

Not only are the American interests getting discount oil, they are making by-products from the soil such as gas, diesel and lubricating oils and selling them back to Canada.

Wake up Canada! Times are going to get tough once Alberta won鈥檛 be able to send equalization payments to Ottawa, which have been financing the federal government for the past few decades.

Gary Hemmerling