Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Mallick on Monbiot

Writing in The Guardian, CBC veteran pundit Heather Mallick weighed in on George Monbiot's op-ed piece slamming Canada as a "corrupt petro-state."

Out of something as misty as mere indecision, Canadian voters have turned their country into a political freak show. Canada's Conservative government, run by an ideologue named Stephen Harper, does not represent Canadian voters on saving the air we breathe and temperatures we can cope with. When it comes to climate change, Canadians are as earnest and decent as they ever were.

Yes, Canada's record on carbon emissions is disgraceful, shameful, loathsome etc. The
tar sands of northern Alberta are an international scandal. But the problem is not in a former Prius of a country turning into a Hummer. Canada's dilemma is... ...the decline of a democracy (partly as its media died, thank you Conrad Black) and the descent of a nation into a political stasis, and it could happen to any country that doesn't mind the political store. What takes place when a nation can't decide on a government and lets a rightwing minority, quivering with hate, have just enough power?

Catastrophe, that's what.

...We have shamed our better natures. But we Canadians will rid ourselves of Harper and rise again to be the decent and intelligent nation you Brits once patronised with such delight.

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