Co-opting the Green Agenda
Hello Boys and Girls and welcome to my neighborhood. Today’s word is . In is akin to in literature. You have good idea, I’ll take it over as my own and screw the acknowledgment.
Today we can see this happening with ever greater frequency by political leaders from all sides of the political spectrum when it comes to being or . Politicians like Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper who in the near past, before he became PM, denounced Kyoto as a leftist plot to strip wealth from developed countries, who said things such as
“We can debate whether or not… CO2 does or does not contribute to global warming. I think the jury is out.” (Stephen Harper interview on the Rafe Mair Show, CKNW Radio Vancouver, November 29, 2002)
“The Kyoto protocol does not deal with critical environmental issues.” (Stephen Harper, Address on the Kyoto Accord, December 9, 2002)
“[Kyoto] is designed to address the so-called ‘greenhouse gas’ phenomenon, the hypothesis that the increase of certain gases - not necessarily pollutants - contribute to a long-term global warming trend.” (Stephen Harper, Address at the Ottawa Leader’s Dinner, November 20, 2002)
and other nonsense
Like most politicians, Harper can smell a sea wind change in the voting public and now he’s is trying to foist himself and his party off as concerned .Anyone who has watched Harper and the Reform Party Canadian Alliance New Conservative Party of Canada for any length of time will know instantly that he and they will do only the minimum they feel necessary to convince the voters they have changed their stripes on the environment. Observers will also know that without fail any actions this government takes will also be undone behind the scenes with back door deals with corporations. The $1.5Billion dollars Harper announced for alternative energy research was no where near enough and was nothing more than the resurrection of a former Liberal plan that Harper had denounced in the House of Commons when he was opposition leader.
Stephen Dion for the Liberals and Jack Layton for the NDP are not much better (the NDP hold the balance of power now in parliament and I doubt we’ll see Layton pressing serious environmental initiatives while in that position). The only party that would truly be a steward of the , The of Canada, are going to be the big losers in this.
The public is making it clear in poll after poll, particularly since the release last week of the preliminary draft of the UN report on climate change was released, that the environment is number one or close to it on their priority list of issues they care about. As traditional parties co-opt, if only in appearance, the issues that have slowly raised up the Green Party to one that will soon elect members their pool of “to be convinced” voters is being whittled away.
The Green Party with its small c conservative fiscal policies, its left of center social policies, and its far sighted and workable environmental policies is the only party that can truly do something constructive in Canada for the environment and by doing so help the rest of the world through action and example. Yes, they will pick up some new voters, and hopefully get a few members elected, but if the old time parties had stuck to their usual platforms then there would have been a great upsetting in the next federal election, one that would have shook the halls of power in Ottawa. I do not see that happening now and sadly that bodes ill for Canada and the planet’s future.
