Canada PM Harper's Green Facade Crumbling?
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 01.31.07
image from The Conscious Earth
He has worked so hard to paint himself and the Conservative party green, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper is having a bad week. First a letter that he wrote in 2002 sent to members of his party popped up: "We're gearing up for the biggest struggle our party has faced since you entrusted me with the (Alliance) leadership. I'm talking about the `battle of Kyoto' – our campaign to block the job-killing, economy-destroying Kyoto accord."... "(The accord is) based on tentative and contradictory scientific evidence about climate trends.".... "It focuses on carbon dioxide, which is essential to life, rather than upon pollutants." (Hey, we've heard that before!) and our fave, " "Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations." ::the Star Now this was written almost five years ago when he was not a conservative but leader of an Alberta-based very right-wing Alliance Party, and he may have had a Damascus Road Experience since, so we might give him a little slack, but.....
This just out: Sierra Legal says that the Government is " withholding the results of two environmental investigations that would embarrass the Conservatives and conflict with their claims that they are in fact a legitimate option for green voters." The investigations were conducted by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, CEC, the environmental agency established under the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico. They focused on the destruction of tens of thousands of migratory bird nests in Ontario's forests and the discharge of toxic effluent from Canadian pulp and paper mills. "Whatever happened to Prime Minister [Stephen] Harper’s commitment to transparency and accountability?" asked Albert Koehl, a lawyer with Sierra Legal, which represents Canadian and American groups that requested the investigations. ::Press Release via ::Conscious Earth
Federal climate crusader gets axe (from the Star)
Canada's crusading federal environment commissioner has lost her job after sharply criticizing the government and calling for a "massive scale-up" of its environmental efforts.Green party Leader Elizabeth May, a long-time friend of Johanne Gélinas, said her departure has been in the works for months. "It's been coming for some time. Ever since she filed her report on climate change there have been attempts to shut down her office and curtail her role," May said.
For some reason the Environmental Commissioner's job comes under the Office of the Auditor General, who evidently thought Gélinas was overstepping her bounds, and Stephen Harper had nothing, nothing at all to do with it. Right. according to the Star: The Liberals tried to tie the departure to a heavy-handed Conservative government. Leader Stéphane Dion said the Tories have closed Environment Canada's climate-change unit, abolished the positions of ambassadors of the environment and circumpolar affairs and shut down a climate-change website in the year since they took office. ::The Star
Who? ... ... ... oh! Canada... :-)
oh how i wish we had proportional voting, it will be the day of my dreams when we can go to the poles and actually vote for who we want in office and not who we don't want in office(using strategic voting).
I really hope this gets more press, especially with the environment being the number 1 issue of canadians. This is the first i have heard of these matters, and they seem pretty big
and our fave, " "Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations."
Are you saying that's not what it is?