[NVDave]

That wasn’t political correctness, that was marketing on the part of Canadian farmers.

Rapeseed oil was known all the way back into the 50’s to have questionable properties as a fry oil, in particular high erucic fatty acid content.

So Canadian farm groups started breeding a brassica family oilseed that had better nutritional qualities than classic rapes.

And the result is called “Canola.” While is is true that Canola is a particular variety of rape, it isn’t true that any rapeseed oil can be called “canola oil.”

[mirado]

Thanks for the correction. I was going off of what I was told by several farmers, without verifying it independently.

Interestingly, however, I haven’t heard of any rapeseed grown, in recent history, up in Canada, at least not in my neck of the woods.