2007/12/17

Is Baird damaging Conservative election prospects?

Chantal Hebert opines in the Toronto Star that John Baird did great damage in Bali to the Conservatives' election prospects. She said that Baird's performance "amounted to ripping a scab off a wound that had barely begun to heal". She concluded that "the Bali meeting was a multi-day communications disaster for the Harper regime. It set back a year of Conservative efforts to rebrand the party on climate change and confirmed the issue as the government's Achilles heel."

The Conservatives have been struggling for the past year to rebrand themselves as Conservatives with an environmental conscience. That has been shattered by the images of Baird aligning himself with the US and Japan to block progress in Bali and reinforced by TV footage showing him going out the back door to avoid young environmentalists.

Stephane Dion can only take some comfort from Baird's antics in Bali as the Conservatives align themselves even more closely with the outgoing Bush administration.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Cons track record on the environment is laughable.

Dame said...

I think Baird was completely blocked by the PM to say anything on His own.. it was spoonfed directed and wordeed by Harper himself . minutes by minutes... This is not to say I defend Baird he is a puppet has zero individual Input in His portfolio.
Harper is killing the guy as he is done it with other cabinet Ministers .
I wonder how can they take this total control and suffocating environment.??