Greg Rickford, the man Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has selected to take over as Canada’s Resources Minister, immediately takes on one of the biggest challenges facing the Canadian economy: the stalled effort to get approval for Keystone XL. Under the Conservative government, the resources job has emerged as a high-profile role, responsible for the push to get landlocked Alberta crude to markets around the world. Pipeline construction has taken on heightened importance as Canada’s largest buyer of crude, the U.S., experiences an energy boom of its own toward a path of energy self-sufficiency. The job of Resources Minister became vacant after Joe Oliver was moved from that post to Finance, to fill the vacancy left by the resignation Tuesday of Jim Flaherty. Mr. Rickford was a junior minister in the cabinet, with responsibility for science policy and northern development in Canada’s largest province, Ontario. A key part of […]