Ethical Oil Runs Afoul of Saudi Arabia

In the battle between Alykhan Velshi and the House of Saud, everybody loses.

Remember that Ethical Oil campaign that compares Alberta's oilsands to oil imported from the Middle East and Africa and other such places run by “bastards”? It appears to have had its desired effect in pissing off Saudi Arabia, whose ambassador to Canada sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Television of Bureau of Canada, telling them to pull the plug on the ad. The ad questions why we import oil from Saudi Arabia, a country in which woman can't drive nor leave the house without a man. The spot, which ran on the Oprah network, apparently got the world's largest petroleum producer a little upset, and now the brain behind the Ethical Oil campaign, former Tory hack Alykhan Velshi, has challenged the Saudi ambassador to a debate – “moderated by a woman” – in which the two will presumably settle, once and for all, which one is the bigger asshat. Our money's on Velshi.