Seven Oaks Magazine.

Linda McQuaig has, for years, skillfully employed humour and wit to critique the machinations of right-wing governments and their corporate allies. She has made a career out of debunking the neo-liberal economic agenda in terms that are accessible and enjoyable to read. With Shooting the Hippo, for instance, she shot down the myth of debt reduction as national emergency in Canada – a fable under which this country’s social programs were slashed during the 1990s reign of Paul Martin as finance minister. She expanded her critique of market fundamentalism in The Cult of Impotence, attacking the notion of the inevitability of dismantling the public sector.

In McQuaig’s latest effort, It’s the Crude, Dude, the author puts her talents to work analysing the politics of oil, the historical continuity of imperial policies surrounding its exploitation, and the particularly nefarious role of the current U.S. administration’s efforts to control this most strategic of resources. The unfortunately flippant title is somewhat out of sync with the urgent message of the book. The subtitle gives you a better flavour of what to expect: “War, Big Oil, and the Fight for the Planet.”

Eschewing unreadable and dry academic writing, McQuaig unfolds her thesis largely through a series of character vignettes. So, in the first chapter, we meet the arch villain of the story, ExxonMobil CEO Lee. R. Raymond, who leads the push for both an aggressive foreign policy and a regressive, rejectionist approach to environmental regulation – notably heading up the campaign against the Kyoto accord on climate change. Next, we’re introduced to the swarm of lobbyists who do Raymond and Big Oil’s dirty work; one of these beauties, Myron Ebell, describes Kyoto supporters as “an animus against humanity” (p. 18).

After encountering the corporate heads and hacks pushing for oily wars, McQuaig introduces us to the really cartoonish villains: the top officials of the Bush administration, with the role of Gargamel being played by none other than Dick Cheney. To wit: The Vice-President still holds $18 million worth of stock in infamously war-profiteering Halliburton, plus $150 000/year from his old company (p. 76).

Now, any book with “dude” in the title has to provide us with some sunshine to go with the torrential rain of the Iraq war and the sordid politics behind it. And McQuaig delivers a ray of hope in the form of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, the man who “saved OPEC,” recounting the Bolivarian leader’s successful efforts to revive the old alliance of oil-producing nations as part of his larger strategy to strengthen the unity of the Third World.

From her analysis of the key world events of the past few turbulent years, McQuaig proceeds into a detailed history of such interrelated phenomenon as OPEC, the development of the SUV, and the history of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. The arrangement makes for a bit of a change of pace for readers; in fact, with the main arguments delivered so thoroughly in the opening sections, the second half of the book feels almost like superfluous supporting evidence.

But the history and context, of course, is crucial to indicting the architects of the present-day drive for control of the world’s oil resources. One element that distinguishes It’s the Crude, Dude from other recent attempts to expose the agenda of empire-building in the Middle East is its inclusion of the role of U.S. support for Israel. This Holy Land, for instance, is conspicuously absent from Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11.

And speaking of that icon of progressive America, someone told me recently that Linda McQuaig has been billed as "Canada’s Michael Moore," which shows you just how ubiquitous the filmmaker from Flint has become. It also speaks, though, to McQuaig’s effectiveness at presenting a class analysis of politics in a palatable and even entertaining form. Moore has just released a companion reader to his smash-hit documentary; but It’s the Crude, Dude could also fit that bill, and then some.