Friday, December 18, 2009

Ignatieff, You Idiot! That's Not How You Respond to Harper on Climate Change

The ever feckless Michael Ignatieff has spoken, revealing yet again why he's not up to the job of leading the Liberal Party of Canada. Igs should have been prepared for the failure of Copenhagen and he should have been ready to come out charging against Harper.

Harper, quite predictably, slimed his way out of the Copenhagen climate change summit by blowing Big Oil with this line: “What will be most critical for Canada in terms of filling out the details of our regulatory framework will be the regulatory framework of the United States. If the Americans don't act, it will severely limit our ability to act. But if the Americans do act, it is essential that we act in concert with them.”

In case you haven't figured that out, what Harper said was code for, "I'm off the hook, I can scam this for years to come and that's exactly what I'm fixing to do." Harper can say that because he can get away with it. No one has the guts to stand up to him and call him a fraud.

So, after having been invited to shred Harper's blustering, what does the Liberal Party's Michael Ignatieff have to say? He responds with this: “We cannot allow Canadian environmental policy to be entirely dependent on American politics. We need an aggressive, made in Canada climate-change plan now. And we're willing to work with Mr. Harper on this if his government brings forward a serious plan that treats our provinces fairly and includes pollution reductions for all sectors.”

That's it? That's what we get for letting Iggy put Dion down? That's leadership? Does this guy not know how to go on the attack? Is he running scared of Harper? Shouldn't he be off somewhere writing a book or something?

Why doesn't he attack Harper when the scoundrel is vulnerable? Why let the guy off the hook with vague arguments over emission reductions that will never materialize while Harper has the key to 24 Sussex Drive anyway? Why not turn to this Tory jerk's abject refusal to recognize the change that's already happening and already enroute, his refusal to institute adaptation policies the far north and both coasts will need in the near future? Harper won't do that. He can't, because that would acknowledge the gravity of the threat and leave him having to explain why he's doing Sweet Fanny Adams about it.

If Iggy can't grasp how to kick Harper straight to the curb on this issue then he's worse than useless as leader of the Liberal Party. Don't give us bullshit about "working with Harper on a serious plan" when, unless you're brain dead, you have to realize Harper has no intention of doing anything remotely like that. Harper will eat Ignatieff's lunch if he goes that route. Look how he played the Liberal leader for a sucker on the Pinata Budget.

I'm sorry but Michael Ignatieff is but a meandering political disaster. You don't get moments like this all that often and, entirely true to course, he blew it. If the roles were reversed, Harper would never have passed up this opportunity.

For god's sake Mike, you'll never land a punch if you can't figure out how to throw one. Unless, of course, you're on Harper's side on climate change. Maybe that you chose this week to issue another ringing endorsement of the Athabasca Tar Sands I shouldn't bother positing the question.

8 comments:

  1. Unless, of course, you're on Harper's side on climate change.
    Iggy, Harper, very little difference...

    It's scary when Charest (a conservative but without the name), is pushing for a lot more that Iggy...

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  2. wake up wake up my little darlings...
    you've had a nightmare

    In Dec/08 the Liberals picked Bob Rae to replace Dion and while bad polling haunted the first days of the coalition, now 60% of Canadians are happy with the Rae gov't after a winter of good governance

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  3. I just realized that in the closing days of Copenhagen, MI was 'busy' giving year-end interviews to the Toronto Star and the Globe & Mail blaming his team of rookie handlers for his own failures over this last, agonizing year.

    I guess that's why, when Copenhagen ended oh so predictably, MI was ready - with a press release.

    Ignatieff IS the problem, not his advisors. He's the equivalent of bringing a butter knife to a gunfight.

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  4. Yes, I am afraid that Iggy is a coward.

    I don't think Copehagen was a failure. Countries agreed to limit warming to under 2 degrees. This limit is most important. There are any number of ways to get there, and solely focussing on caps (where every country gets a certain cap) is only one limited way of looking at the problem. This two degree policy allows any number of advanced countries to step up and do as much as they can to help in this effort. A lot can be done by exporting Canadian know how in atomic and hydro energy, electrified transport, and industrial processes. We also have the ability to finance efforts in other countries.

    It is very dumb to focus so much on how our own country will get under a cap of X. We could indeed come up with such a plan, but there is a huge risk of having few ideas within it that could be applied outside our borders, or develop the industrial, financial, and technical know-how to help in this global problem. Global warming isn't going to be abated by treaties and jawing. It isn't going to be solved by taxes or caps: they are just a small, but important part. It is going to be solved by technology and processes, and countries have to will those into being by focused strategies overseen by government.

    Ignatief should think big. If he doesn't come out soon with something big, a vision of Canada in the world, A vision for the world itself, Then he might as well give up. He isn't going to win against our prince of self-centeredness, Stephen Harper, busily building a Canada irrelevant to the rest of the world.

    What's ironic is that MI was once a man who thought in terms of Canada's place within the whole world.

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  5. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  6. Sorry Anon but you'll have to do better than that. Iggy didn't ask to be annointed "apprentice Leader." He claimed to be ready to go and fully able to deserve the job.

    He acts as though his position is a part-time job. When parliament was prorogued and he should have been developing a Liberal alternative to Harper's stimulus proposal, he used the time to write a book about his mother's family. I guess he thought a tome on the Grants was just what Canadians needed as we dropped into a recession and teetered on the brink of a depression.

    Bereft of ideas and policies, he's convened a "Thinkers' Conference" for next March. He acts as though he has all the time in the world even as the Liberal Party fades into obscurity. If he needed a thinkers' conference he should have held it last March, not next March.

    You haven't given one solitary reason why you want to beatify Iggy other than he's not Harper. Big deal.

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  7. I have restored Anon's comment referred to above

    I do not think you understand Harper.What Travers, said today was right on, and Chantel Herbert on Thursday night would make ones skin crawl and another in the Star about reigious fanatics..the same as
    George Bush's crowd of evangelistics are in with Harper..scares me. My point is MI is still learning and is improving. If compared to Harper and what he is doing to the country, MI is a Saint

    - Anonymous

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  8. Never liked the guy, still don't and... he's made things the worse for the Liberal Party.
    Who holds the hook to pull him off stage?
    Well... he could just give a gentleman's bow, and graciously exit.
    As a voter, I'm flexible.
    Its a pity for the many bright people who are part of the Liberal Party.
    Ignatieff is ignoring their grassroots.

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