100 days after the Deepwater Horizon oil well began spilling oil in plumes into the Gulf of Mexico, BP is talking about a permanent well kill that may be in place as early as Monday. While the oil well itself is mostly under control and is closer to being under permanent control, there are still massive cleanup efforts to be conducted, safety measures to be improved on future deep water drilling, and charges to be laid in one of the largest environmental disasters in history.

BP itself, under the direction of embattled CEO Tony Hayward, was guilty early on of a pitifully slow and careless response to the oil spill that seemed more concerned with putting a positive spin on BP than it did to actually solving the problem. As a result, Hayward was taken off the case and will be leaving the company in October, according to recent reports. In addition, investigations by the US government will be “ongoing … there will be a criminal inquiry as well as civil investigation and it involves more than simply BP,”  stated U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

Despite the massive issues laid bare by the Gulf disaster, deep water drilling will proceed off of Canada’s east coast. Having just gotten back from a trip to those beautiful shores, I found myself contemplating “what if” the beautiful red beaches of PEI or the sandy shores of New Brunswick would be hit by a similar oil disaster. Given the cavalier attitude of the Canadian Conservative government towards everything energy, it is likely that history will be repeated here. Anyone who is interested in preserving Canada’s Maritime shores should actively be asking themselves what they can do to stop deep water drilling off of this coast until adequate backup measures, in the form of backup rigs or others, can be put in place.