Today, plunging oil prices have sent Alberta into an ever-deepening recession; climate change is defining presidential legacies; and opposition to the tar sands has ballooned, with significant popular protests breaking out along proposed pipeline routes across Canada. These include Enbridge’s Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipelines in British Columbia, as well as TransCanada’s Energy East, which will stretch nearly the entire length of the country to the Atlantic coast. Could all of this spell a permanent end to tar sands expansion?