The Liberal who is probably most associated with environmentalism has been dumped from the Commons environment committee.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has removed Global Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion from the environment, climate change and energy committee which he chaired.
Although he will continue to serve on some cabinet committees studying other issues, Dion's removal from the environment committee was notable. He is a renowned environmentalist and advocate for climate action, and was among the team of delegates who attended the Paris climate summit in 2015, during which Canada endorsed a 1.5 degree limit to global warming. As Liberal party leader in the 2008 federal election, he campaigned for a "green shift" carbon tax as part of a strategy to combat climate change. Dion was defeated by Stephen Harper who formed a minority government.
Maybe Uncle Steffie was seen as a potential problem to the government's bitumen-pimping policies.
Trudeau, Clinton, Theresa May, And the world says ; Neoliberalism is dead!
ReplyDeleteHere we have three influential politicians that don't really believe in global warming.
TB
Stéphane Dion has never impressed me as capable at anything so I can't tell if his removal from the Environment committee is good or bad. I do know that Dion is interested in the environment, that he favors carbon taxes but I don't see him plugging an agenda. Does he do his best work behind the scenes? Has he said something in public to embarrass the PM?
ReplyDeleteMound, you may be right that Dion is a problem to "the government's bitumen-pimping policies." Certainly Trudeau's apostles are pretty much in line with the oil and pipeline advocates.
Trudeau seems to be holding Stephen Harper's coattails.
He is a renowned environmentalist and advocate for climate action....
ReplyDeleteNo wonder he was removed from the environment committee. For the Libs, the environment's more about show than substance.
Cap
Perhaps this is retribution for Uncle Steffie's awkward handling of the Saudi death wagon deal where he showed a decided inability to suppress his guilty conscience even as he stayed precisely to the government's script. He might well have posed an embarrassment to Trudeau if he continued as chair of the environment committee. Your take is as plausible as any, Toby.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, TB and Cap, neoliberalism is the default operating system of the Trudeau government just as it was in Harper's. Trudeau is too much a lightweight to realize it's a source of weakness, not strength.
Dion is a loser.
ReplyDeleteHis national unity and environment wins were obviously the result of good staff work. He can't walk and chew gum at the same time.
Watch for his "promotion" to some diplomatic or other "important" role.
This article seems to confuse Commons committees and Cabinet committees. I thought Cabinet ministers weren't supposed to be members of Commons committees, never mind chairing them.
ReplyDeleteCabinet committees are more powerful in majority governments, anyway.
Two days ago I wrote about Dion: "Watch for his "promotion" to some diplomatic or other "important" role."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/08/25/stephane-dion-france-ambassador-foreign-affairs_n_11700842.html