Stretching credulity to breaking point

Sometimes you see the most ridiculous things that stretch credulity to the breaking point. An example is a piece in the Toronto Sun by former Conservative MP Monte Solberg headlined:
"Harper government is a conservation leader."

You have to wonder what Solberg, a long-time favourite of Conservative bloggers, has been smoking since he left public office. He trots out a few examples of nature conservancy and Ducks Unlimited initiatives to support his preposterous thesis.

The reality of course is that the Harper government has an abyssmal record on environmental and conservation issues. Their position on climate change, or lack of a position that entails anything other than propping up Big Oil, is well known. Canada was the laughing stock of the recent Copenhagen Conference and won more fossil awards than the space available to accommodate them in Ottawa. This is still the bald fact notwithstanding Rex Murphy's sarcastic comments in today's National Post about the advocates of the need to take measures to address and mitigate the effects of climate change. Rex used to always get carried away by the sound of his own voice and mastery of arcane words even when I knew him at Memorial University. He's beginning to sound a bit like David Warren, resident fossil at the Ottawa Citizen.

But I digress. Nothing exemplifies more clearly the poor track record of the Harper government on conservation issues than its recent sell-out of Canadian interests in the renogtiation of the Convention for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries, i.e. the NAFO issue. The House of Commons Standing Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, after extensive hearings, called on the Harper government to reject the proposed NAFO amendments and to launch an objection to kill the ratification process. The House of Commons itself by majority vote adopted a motion by Liberal Fisheries critic Gerry Byrne calling on the government to scuttle the amendments. In line with its general disdain for Parliament and all things democratic, the Harper government proceeded the very next day to announce Canadian ratification of the NAFO amendments which had been widely condemned by experienced former DFO executives and the Parliament of Canada. I will touch on the implications of this for conservation of straddling fish stocks in a subsequent post.

So, Mr. Solberg, I suggest you look a little more clearly at the government's record on environmental/conservation issues before making preposterous claims that do not bear up to scrutiny.

http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/monte_solberg/2010/01/29/12670041.html

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.

Harper a dinosaur on climate change

Stephen Harper pays lip service to the need to address climate change while fighting off any commitments by Canada to meet reduction targets. The latest example was his disgraceful performance at the CHOGM meeting in Africa. Harper personally blocked the adoption of a consensus statement that included a reference to targets and forced through a weaker version that committed no one to anything. By their actions of the past year Harper and his colleagues have in effect rescinded Canada's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. Meanwhile Australians have tossed Harper's recent partner, PM John Howard, out of office. The new Australian PM has committed to ratify Kyoto and take real action on climate change. When Bush leaves office Harper will be isolated on this and many other issues, if he is still PM at that time. Dare we hope that Canadians will wake up and toss him out of office before then?