Several environmentalists hoping to attend the conference Tuesday were turned away, according to David Hocking, acting executive director of the David Suzuki Foundation, who was told it was a "private meeting" with the media.
"I guess you can see why, because they really didn't announce anything," Mr. Hocking said, adding that the government's continued delay in delivering its environmental platform is frustrating the environmental community.
All the experts agree, the government doesn't need a new Clean Air Act to implement change, ample legislative power is already in place:
Environmentalists and opposition party critics have said that the government could immediately crack down on air pollution and greenhouse gases by using existing powers under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, instead of tabling legislation that could take years to implement.
Canada waits while we soldier through an unnecessary vanity exercise, which only delays. The Tory apologists can argue until the cows come home, this initiative is nothingness, as one environmental group put it, simply "re-inventing the wheel".
Even more insulting, despite the fact that industry has been consulted since 1998, this government offers the following:
The government plans to spend a year consulting with industry and the provinces with the aim of coming up with short-, medium-and long-term targets that will have to be met by regulation, rather than on the voluntary basis that exists now.
Translation, the government will call an election within the next year. Canadians want action, this government has the gall to offer talks and try to spin it as though it were substantive. Canadians are taken for a cynical ride.
Where will the talks end? Harper made the tactical error of using the word "intensity" to describe curbing emissions. This argument is a statistical manipulation that the Conservatives will use to argue progress. You lower the intensity of emissions by producing oil, at a cleaner rate per barrel. The intensity is reduced and therefore you have less emissions. The sick part of the joke, Canada will greatly increase its oil output in the coming years, which means a reduction in intensity will still mean an overall increase in emissions. The Harper approach relies on a flurry of numbers to confuse the issue. What is clear, under Harper's "approach" the bottomline number of actual emissions will rise.
So, the Conservatives plan to allocate more money for the hated Liberals transit strategy, enact an unnecessary Hot Air Act to look relevant, consult with big industry while the planet fails and then get down to business. These people think we are stupid, that they can use propaganda to mask reality. Making an announcement to announce you are doing nothing is the epitomy of arrogance, demonstrating how absurd the new reality in Canada has become.
20 comments:
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the concept of a "private meeting with the media".
kev
LOL, I missed that.
As an aside, I went over to Blogging Tories to see the reaction. While the posts are scant, with the requisite Kyoto bashing, it would seem all sides aren't particularly impressed.
Bud
It doesn't work anymore, the dodge and weave of blaming the Liberals. It's a joke really, that old reliable crutch to mask your own incompetence. What the hell were the Conservatives doing for 13 years in opposition? They had a plan for the Arctic, GST, childcare, modernizing the military, maximum sentences, accountability, etc, etc, yet JACKSHIT on the environment, except they were against something. You don't need to be in government to have a plan, ask the NDP and Greens. The protests get more pathetic with each day, as the past government fades in the rear view mirror.
Today's announcement was a disappointment for this non-partisan, non-hippie-environmentalist.
However, Liberals are all full of shit on the environment, and I'll vote Green before I vote for that pack of indifferent, inactive liars again.
No Liberal has any right to criticize the new government on the environment. Any Liberal who does is a hack, and nothing more. Sorry but your credibility is really shot on this one, guys - deal with it like adults.
Oh, shouldn't the title of this post be, "Conservatives Insult Us All After Liberals Spat In Our Faces"?
I think that's what you meant to say.
jason bo green, Dion was ready to implement a plan, before the government was defeated. Can you tell me what that plan was?
I agree. The Lib's took way too much time to enact, and the Con's had an equal amount of time to come up with a plan. A pox on both their houses. But let us look to the future.
Dion, Ignatieff, Kennedy all have a plan. They speak to climate change, not just smog, which is what Harper is doing.
I appreciate your non-partisan status, but, to maintain that, IMO, is to look to the future, not the past. Based on what you are seeing, reading, hearing, now, which makes more sense?
With respect, you cannot hold the current candidates responsible for the ill's of the past. The Liberals are simply not a colour that can be painted across all who are members. It is not a static party.
jason bo green, Dion was ready to implement a plan, before the government was defeated. Can you tell me what that plan was?
I agree. The Lib's took way too much time to enact, and the Con's had an equal amount of time to come up with a plan. A pox on both their houses. But let us look to the future.
Dion, Ignatieff, Kennedy all have a plan. They speak to climate change, not just smog, which is what Harper is doing.
I appreciate your non-partisan status, but, to maintain that, IMO, is to look to the future, not the past. Based on what you are seeing, reading, hearing, now, which makes more sense?
With respect, you cannot hold the current candidates responsible for the ill's of the past. The Liberals are simply not a colour that can be painted across all who are members. It is not a static party.
Um, after 13 years of absolutely nothing whatsoever, and 9 months providing a baby step - I think I'm going to have to say, Gee, the Conservatives are (and I can't believe I'm going to actually say this) starting to show more interest and action on the environment.
No party in Canada is a static party, but Liberals have yet to seriously, truly acknowledge their failure. I can't take their promises seriously right now. It's going to take a long time under a new leader before I will. Right now, it's all just talk talk talk. I've been fooled, er, more than once now (so shame on me, as the saying goes).
If you can seriously say "a pox on both their houses" talking about a party that did nothing during 4 governments and one that is doing at least something in 1, then I can't appreciate your partisanship.
I am not a Conservative and do not intend to ever vote for one single party just because of their banner colour, but the Conservatives are showing me more on a file I care about.
So the Liberals finally got the message - great. Oh wait, didn't they get the message already? And before that, too? Oh, and also before that...
Please. Complain about same-sex marriage or Emerson or almost anything else. But spare me your hypocrisy. The Liberals don't care about the environment - they've told me so for over a decade now.
This Liberal has every right to criticize, given the fact I didn't vote Liberal in the last election, with the environment as a primary motivation. I don't have to defend anything.
Yup - I'm with ex-NDP here.
The sad part is that the Liberals still are supposed to play a role in the Government as Opposition, but their lies and hypocrisy in office now make a joke out of their duty to offer opposition. Their total fuck-up while on the watch now has repercussions on getting effective criticism of yesterday's announcement. Because they are such clowns on the environment and are so indifferent to it, they cannot play the proper role of Opposition.
You're on Liblogs. You continue to support a Party that failed sorely on a major issue. Your support is misplaced, and it's silly to claim the environment as a "primary motivation" if you're running back to the guys who never did squat on it.
Oh, I'm laughing so hard. "bud" says "written on a napkine". This fool falls for that line? The Conservatives have said everything is written on a napkin whether it's true or not. This guy actually believes it - oh this is hysterical.
Try the merger between the Alliance and Conservatives written on a scrap of paper - it's there "bud".
Joe Klein, a well respect political analyst has a book out about the "neo-conservative" strategy. You know, the "Luntz" type strategy. And it's set out to treat people like their stupid. So the conservative voters don't mind being considered stupid? Go figure.
Again, more "stupid" conservatives. Dion's plan was to be implemented in February 2006 after consultation with the Environment Commissioner and her imput, the Kyoto Agreement signed in Montreal and the money in place. The Environment Commissioner knows this and even said some programmes were successfully in place - I watched and heard her say it in an interview.
Now - the NDP and Conservatives chose to bring the government down - who's fault that this plan was not implemented - figure it out.
jason
"Running back" is a joke. What is wrong with trying to make a SMALL difference by participating. The environment is my number one issue, I thought it best to try and influence a party that is apparently in renewal and may actually hold power in the next 50 years. Having said that, everytime I hear May speak I am impressed and will have no trouble jumping ship if this latest concern is nothing more than empty rhetoric.
Steve, my problem with you right now is not that you are a Liberal per se, it is that you are a partisan acting for partisan purposes and I can't take your post seriously.
A truly thoughtful post would say, "After Liberal insults, Conservatives insult, too" or the like. It would acknowledge that there are now five governments in a row, and two parties, who are not performing up to snuff on an important matter.
Instead, you've chosen an unbalanced and unprincipled stance that seeks to discredit one party in order to unfairly garner support for an undeserving party.
You try and spin how "absurd the new reality" in Canada is, and fail to mention that it's not a new reality at all - it is business as usual.
We're back to "Liberal, Tory - same old story", but you are too partisan and blind to see that, so your talk and hot air about "participating" in a "SMALL difference" on your "number one issue". All environmentalists are going to have to work and influence ALL the parties who have "a chance" of "actually holding power" in the "next 50 years", but your partisan hackery limits you from seeing that it's not the party, it's the policy.
You think "running back" is a joke? Um, surprise Steve - you're the joke.
Why can't this just be a discussion about the merits of the Tory plan? What the Liberals did is irrelevant to what the Conservatives plan, or not plan, to do. If you want to make this simply a partisan issue feel free, I don't see it that way. Did I need to point out the Liberal failures to show "balance"? I don't understand the logic, and frankly its more of a distraction at this point. There is nothing unprincipled in pointing out that this non-announcement is absurd. If you want to attach all your sanctimony it's your choice, but I don't really take your criticisms seriously.
What sanctimony? You're looking at outrage here.
What the Liberals did is irrelevant to what the Conservatives plan, or not plan, to do.
WRONG. Because the Liberals are such screw-ups and the Conservatives are such letdowns, I'm now looking at having to throw my vote to the Green party in a riding which will never elect a Green MP, which sure feels like a wasted vote to me, but I can't "not vote".
When neither electable party is tackling a major issue with real vigour, you don't think that's a problem? When both sides of a political spectrum let the country down, all it means is "sanctimony" to you?
Wow, you're not only a joke, you're also a tool.
"Wow, you're not only a joke, you're also a tool."
A hammer or screwdriver?
Yes, let's talk about the new government's plan...
What is the plan?
When is a plan a plan? Is the plan still in the approach stage? What is the approach to the plan?
I know, let's all pay for ministers to jet across the country to sit mute behind the PM while he announces that he will be approaching a plan sometime next week.
See it for what it is, okay? It's a nothing announcement about nothing. Even the Liberals at their worst would not have trotted out this dog and pony show in front of the world.
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