Thursday, August 06, 2020

Mulcair Bites Back



I haven't always agreed with failed NDP leader, Thomas Mulcair, but he's on the money in his op-ed in the latest Maclean's, "How Canada became an environmental outlier."

Liberals and the left freely denounced Stephen Harper for turning Canada into a climate pariah. At UN climate summits Canada was regularly mocked for our shoddy policies on greenhouse gases.  Then we elected another eco-champion, the son of the great Pierre Trudeau.
There was a lot of hope during the negotiation of the Paris Accord just after the 2015 election. I was in the conference room in Paris when Justin Trudeau, representing a new generation of world leaders, threw out his arms wide and proclaimed, “Canada is back!” What he forgot to mention was that Canada was back with Stephen Harper’s plan, Stephen Harper’s timelines and Stephen Harper’s targets—the same targets that Trudeau had derided as being woefully inadequate during the his election campaign.

Canada was once again playing to type. Canadians who cared about the environment and climate change could feel better about themselves. Even if the results still weren’t there (we haven’t met even Stephen Harper’s targets since signing the Paris Accord), at least they were no longer embarrassed. We had a new leader who could emote on the subject, even if Canada still didn’t walk that talk.
In short order our hopes were dashed. Justin was merely the last in a line of Liberal leaders that went all the way back to Chretien.
Jean Chretien will always get credit for signing the Kyoto Protocol even though Canada went on to have one of the worst records in the world for GHG increases. Stephen Harper famously called the Kyoto Protocol a “socialist scheme designed to suck money from rich countries”. Chretien and Harper had results that were similar, but one approach was welcoming to environmentalists and the other, to the oil patch.

Both sides were talking to their base: the Conservatives in mocking Kyoto, the Liberals in signing it. But with both Liberal and Conservative governments, Canada has consistently failed to meet its international obligations on climate change. As highly-respected former sustainable development commissioner Julie Gelfand pointed out in her final report, Canadian governments had shown a disturbing failure to meet our climate obligations for decades.
As Chretien’s former chief of staff Eddie Goldenberg later admitted, Canada didn’t have any plan to meet the Kyoto targets and it was mostly about “galvanizing public opinion”, in other words, it was largely an exercise in political communication.
Just when the Liberal government desperately needed a smoke screen, along comes a pandemic.
Perhaps not surprising then that the only thing Trudeau did on the environment during the COVID-19 pandemic was weaken environmental rules to help the fossil fuel industry, just as the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers had requested. The stakes are high and it really is a question of which generation will lead us out of the current health and economic crisis.

Trudeau and Peter MacKay, his likely Conservative opponent in the next federal election, represent the same generation—one that has failed on the environment. Anyone hoping that we could see a change should meditate on MacKay’s reflection on Canada’s role in combating climate change: “We can throw all our car keys in Halifax harbour, turn down the heat, turn off the lights, walk around naked in the dark eating organic beets and it won’t make a difference.”
None of this will make any difference with the Liberal party faithful. They will continue to gush and swoon over their oh-so decent leader, ignoring how he has betrayed Canada, especially future generations of Canadians, even if he does seem more like Chretien's kid than Pierre's. 

10 comments:

  1. “We can throw all our car keys in Halifax harbour, turn down the heat, turn off the lights, walk around naked in the dark eating organic beets and it won’t make a difference.”

    Good gawd Mound ! It might be the singularly greatest quote re Canada's Environment ever.. The Boss ran out to see if I was choking.. from laughter.. and fell off the deck laughing herself.. 'organic beets.. nakid !!!'

    I never got down on him.. I thought he got a bad rap.. or his timing was off.. He wasn't JACK .. carried too many mortgages.. whatever .. but he just went mega right there.. put the fire axe in the mouldy drywall.. and tore it away to reveal there were no studs.. and lamp quality wire wuz run without conduit or code.. He forgot about go big or don't go.. and went 'organic beets'.. with naked toe grab.. Top of the damn Mountain Tom.. !!

    Made my Day.. damn.. That has to be read aloud.. in House of Commons.. and be entered in Hansard..

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  2. These old men need to make room for young people. People like Peter MacKay had their day and they ended up doing nothing for the good of the Canadian people whom they have taken for granted. The law needs to change.

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  3. MacKay's comment makes me think of that old traditional responsibility dodge. With the more modern context added:
    "Well if I didn't lie, cheat and steal to doom humanity, then someone else would!"

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  4. Anon, "these old men need to make room for young people." Young people are, sadly, the most disengaged politically. Old people vote and so they matter. Politicians know old people can be counted on to turn out to the polls. They're focused. They know what they want. What they want often is not in the best interests of the country, not in the long term, but everyone wants their vote.

    Young people whine, if they speak up at all. They have a cynicism that belies their years. Make room for young people, why exactly? Progressives have waited for years, decades, waiting for young people to rally to the cause. It is their future at stake after all.

    Some day, perhaps, young people will mobilize into a political presence that must be reckoned with. That, however, is up to them. Changing the law is fine, when there's a clear purpose to be served. Young people have to create that purpose.

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  5. Yes, it's a dodge. They do it because we don't punish them for it at the polls, PLG.

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  6. I am talking about politicians. Do they show any shame at all...no they don’t. They aren’t smart enough to make it so they turn to parties.

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  7. Anon, your logic is confusing and your argument is really obscure. If you judge politicians by their willingness to show shame wouldn't that rule out politicians as a class? "They aren't smart enough to make it so they turn to parties" What does that even mean? Make what, where? Turn to parties? Do you mean join political parties, work their way to the top? You could say the very same thing about every great political leader as every poor one. They all "turn to parties," work within the party ranks, rise to the top. Some do a commendable job. Some don't. Either way they have something in common - we elect them.

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  8. .. salamander with red face..

    I misread .. and thought it was still Mulcair article.. it was Mackay ? Well fair enough.. he hit the mark there. Secondly, its andrewleach.ca .. his index of previous articles titled 'Alberta Politics' holds highly detailed gems.. havalook.. I sent you the wrong link.. overall its a better source for me to review his work.. and no paywall..

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  9. No, Sal, the article was written by Tom Mulcair, certainly not Peter MacKay. The post links to the Maclean's article.

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  10. Yeah, but the article by Mulcair quotes MacKay. Salamander was finding the quote amusing, but hadn't realised that it was a MacKay quote rather than part of the text by Mulcair.
    For me, the quote is amusing in a vacuum as it were, but MacKay obviously meant it as "Doing things is useless, therefore Canada should do nothing about climate change" which isn't really a sentiment I respect.

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