I've been watching this one closely. IMHO it is not in Canada's interest to get too snugly in bed with the Chinese government. If a Chinese suitor such as a private billionaire/consortium came along I would say go for it as they are investing their own hard-earned crust and not what has been IMHO taken from the public via a corrupt dictatorship.

For Canada to take the the CNOOC deal is saying that we endorse the Chinese government's methods and policies.

I live and work in the East Coast Canada oil & gas industry, and after seeing what happened in my native country Scotland IMO Canada need to take a leaf out of Norway's book. Here are my rough rules from lessons learned:

Only go into partnership when you don't have enought capital to develop your own resources.

Only sell the finished product of your resources to maximise value.

Only take on partnerships with like-minded companies.

Only take on partnerships with private invetsors, never other governments.

It's not that long ago that the Chinese were trying to buy raw bitumen from Alberta and Harper quite rightly said no. Hopefully he will say no again.

The country's resources belong to the people, not the government, we elected the government to act on our behalf. I wonder what a nationwide poll would show on the CNOOC proposal...

Max