Tar Nation game targets Harper, Ignatieff

Alberta's oilpatch is fuming over an online game that allows players to spray oil at two federal leaders who pop up behind rocks.

Tar Nation, released on Monday, features caricatures of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and federal Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff bouncing up and down against a backdrop of an oilsands refinery. Players use a gun to shoot crude oil at them.

The game is hosted on a site owned by the Polaris Institute, a public interest group based in Ottawa.

'[The oil industry's] strip-mining operations are ripping an ever enlarging hole in the boreal forest, which are the northern lungs of the planet.' —Tony Clarke, Polaris Institute

Both Harper and Ignatieff believe the oilsands in northern Alberta can be developed responsibly.

"It's calling attention to the fact that both of the leaders of the two major parties in Canada have said, 'We have to clean up the oilsands,' 'We have to do more on the environment,' but they actually haven't put any real plans on the table," said Chris Severson-Baker of the Pembina Institute, which advocates for sustainable development and clean energy.

The Polaris Institute and environmental groups say federal politicians need to enact policies to protect wildlife, water and First Nations bands they say are being hurt by oilsands development.

"[The oil industry's] strip-mining operations are ripping an ever enlarging hole in the boreal forest, which are the northern lungs of the planet," said Tony Clarke of the Polaris Institute.

Travis Davies, manager of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, admits the Tar Nation game is eye-catching but called it "misguided and shallow."

"[The oilsands are] a critical resource," Davies said Monday. "It's a big part of the economy. We need a broader conversation, and I don't think products like this help us do that."

Propaganda campaigns

Last week, Alberta's energy minister said the province's oil and gas industry was under attack from well-funded international groups and their propaganda campaigns.

"I think we need to do a better job of explaining that it is 25 per cent of the [Toronto Stock Exchange], that it's a prime driver of economy, that it supports hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country," said Davies.

Links on the Tar Nation game direct people to an email message they can send to federal party leaders.

"The tarsands represent the wrong direction for Canada," reads the message.

Davies said if the oil industry produced a similar game that allowed players to attack activists, the reception wouldn't be so lighthearted.

If environmentalists really want to make a difference, they should "get out of the toy store" and come to the table to talk, he said.