Well news from Canada has been making its way to the US today.
Canada's Governor General and Viceroy Julie Payette has resigned today after an investigative report indicated that she had been verbally abusive and nasty to various civil servants (including RCMP officers on her protective detail). She is, I think, the only head of state (admittedly only when Her Majesty is not in Canada) who has racked up millions of miles flying in outer space.
Also, many in Canada are upset with Biden now as he ordered stoppage of work on the Keystone Pipeline. In addition to making the completed sections of the pipeline useless and putting thousands of union construction workers out of work in the US it will result in many Canadian workers being left off. It is likely to result in oil price increases in the US market.
It will probably speed up pressure to increase work on expanding the Trans-Mountain Pipeline from Alberta to Vancouver where oil can be exported to the Pacific Rim nations including oil hungry China more cheaply.
Alberta politicians are livid and urging trade sanctions against the US as well as lawsuits against the US government. Meanwhile the politicians in Beijing are no doubt doing a happy dance down the hall.
Living in Massachusetts I have been happy with the lower gasoline prices and heating oil prices since Obama left. Looks like Biden is leading us back to the eye-watering prices of Obama's era.
To address the Keystone XL Pipeline issue, Biden cancelling it has been expected for some time and the view in Canada is that there is really nothing the Canadian government can do about it. This is a bone that Biden can easily toss to environmentalists to placate them for a while while he gets on with higher priorities, such as the pandemic. Everyone in Canada has known that this is coming.
Biden will be calling Trudeau on Friday, as his first business call to a foreign leader. This has been a tradition with US presidents for a while now, Trump excepted. Trudeau will raise the issue, but is not expected to get any satisfaction.
Keystone XL was already effectively blocked at the state level, so it's questionable whether it could have gone ahead even if Biden didn't withdraw the approval.
What has been raised in the press is that Canada may ask for something else in compensation for what we will take as a diplomatic slight. Several press stories have suggested dropping charges against Meng Wanzhou (the Huawei executive the US wants to extradite from Canada). This will then allow Canada to return her to China, and in turn China can release Kovrig and Spavor (two Canadians held on spying charges in China). That is probably the number one thing that Canada wants from the US at this time.
As for the Trans Mountain pipeline, the Canadian government nationalised it a couple of years ago and are fully committed to ramming it through regardless of opposition. Construction has started and it would take a very unexpected set of circumstances for it to be blocked now.
Between Trans Mountain and Line 3 expansion, that is projected to provide enough export capacity until at least 2030. Reversal of a couple of diluent pipelines would add more capacity on top of that. Biden will be long gone by the time a new pipeline beyond that is needed. Keystone XL would be nice to have as it provides access to particular refineries, but it's not essential. There is a strong current of opinion that we need to diversify exports away from the US more, so future pipelines may target additional overseas markets in Asia.
Alberta have money sunk into Keystone XL, but even at the time the decision was made this was seen as being a poor decision. There are a number of things which Alberta could have done to address their market access problems, but Keystone XL was the worst choice as it was entirely dependent upon matters that were outside the control of Canada. Premier Kenny will shout and make noises about it, but there's not a lot he can do. As I said above, Trudeau is expected to raise the issue with Biden on Friday, but there is believed to be little chance of getting the decision reversed. The pipeline company (TC) and the province of Alberta will sue the US to try to recover their investment under NAFTA rules. However, even if the case goes against the US at most they will simply pay out a few billion and call the issue closed rather than allow the pipeline to be built.
So, overall it's not really a big deal because the decision to block the pipeline has been expected for most of a year and the public in Canada has had a chance to digest that fact. Canada will protest, but if the US do us a favour on some other issue in return and compensate the investors, then it will be put behind us.
On the positive side of things, Biden is believed to be unlikely to declare major Canadian industries "threats to US national security" as Trump was fond of doing, so there may be fewer trade irritants overall. There are other long running trade disputes that are expected to continue (e.g. softwood lumber), but there are likely to be fewer new ones.