Re-branding the oil sands

The headline in the Globe and Mail blared Ottawa fights EU's dirty fuel label on the oil sands. Indeed, Canadians have been getting pressure from a number of quarters in the environmental movement over the issue of how oil is extracted from oil.

I've thinking that this label of "dirty oil" could be just a problem of re-branding. The environmental movement has done this very effectively in the past. Consider how:

• The jungle (think hot, steamy and snake infested) has now become the rain forest.
• Swamps (aligators and mosquito infested, etc.) are now wetlands.

I was at a lunch last week with some investment bankers when one suggested that the whole process is one giant environmental cleanup. We are cleaning up a natural environmental disaster and supplying the world with energy, a win-win proposition.

There is a federal election in Canada. Is anyone listening to this idea? Will anyone stand up for the country this way and become Kaptain Kanada (which incidentally is another re-branding effort)?