An Election Year Gift From Our Friends to the North

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/04/03/harper-thanks-to-obamas-no-on-keystone-the-price-of-canadian-crude-will-go-up-for-the-u-s/

Apparently the Canadians have seen the writing on the wall and won't look to the US as the sole buyer of its oil any longer, and, more importantly, will cease to sell to the US at discounted prices.  Will this affect the spread between Brent and WTI?  It seems likely that it will raise US oil prices and gas prices at the pump this summer, just in time for the elections.

Of course what I'm curious about is how the devil did we get the Canadians to give us discounts in the first place on a quantity as fungible as oil?

I have to say I'm favorably impressed by Harper's plain talk about the vital interests of his nation:

“We have taken a significant price hit by virtue of the fact that we are a captive supplier and that just does not make sense in terms of the broader interests of the Canadian economy,” Harper said. “We’re still going to be a major supplier of the United States. It will be a long time, if ever, before the United States isn’t our number one export market, but for us the United States cannot be our only export market.


“That is not in our interest, either commercially or in terms of pricing.”

“We cannot be, as a country, in a situation where our one and, in many cases, only energy partner could say no to our energy products. We just cannot be in that position.”