Avatar II: The Battle for Fort McMurray

Director James "King of the World" Cameron is inspecting the oil sands in Alberta. Should we care about his opinion?

Eco-crusader cum director James Cameron is in Alberta this week to check out the environmental impact of the oil sands. He's condemned the industry as a "black eye" for Canada before, prompting some to question Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach's decision to rush back from meetings in Ontario to greet a Hollywood tycoon who's likely already made up his mind. Stelmach's critics are asking why we should care what the guy who made True Lies thinks about our oil.

Sun Media’s Ezra Levant has emerged as one of the oil sands’ biggest defenders. He argues that the globetrotting Cameron has no right to lecture Canada on reducing our carbon footprint. “(W)hen he says ‘we’ should live with less, he means ‘you’ should,” writes Levant. “Cameron’s press tour to promote Avatar took him to 107 cities. Perhaps he’ll ‘live with less’ for Avatar II, by flying to just 100 cities.” Levant argues, as he has elsewhere, that Alberta’s oil is ethically superior to just about every other region’s. “What ethical standards meet the Cameron morality test?” he asks. “Terrorist Saudi Arabia? Nuke-building Iran? Toxic Nigeria?”

Stelmach should care a great deal about Cameron’s visit, writes the Edmonton Journal’s Graham Thomson, because “Cameron's opinion will help shape American opinion and that could shape our public policy on the oilsands … To doubt that is to ignore the small army of journalists who have invaded northeast Alberta this week.” Thomson speculates Cameron could do Alberta’s image damage if he decides to, say, make a documentary about the oil sands, but the best Stelmach can expect is “a neutral review from Cameron, one where he doesn't cheer the oilsands but neither does he equate it to an act of violence.”

“Cameron is just the latest in a string of influential Americans who want to check out the oilsands,” writes the Toronto Star’s Gillian Steward. Nancy Pelosi and several U.S. senators recently visited Canada to discuss the industry. Like it or not Cameron’s a powerful figure in the U.S., the oil sands’ primary customer, and Steward argues Stelmach’s right to want to bring him onside.