Apolitical Staples

Don Newman is indeed a pro, and has an incredible memory.

I am just not particularly crazy about some of his panelists.

In other news, I’ve heard a number of commentators here calling a Harper Green Plan a key element required to siphon voters away from the May-led Green Party and steal the initiative from the Liberals and the NDP. However, I’ve heard that Harper’s Green Plan may now be years away.

Greg, you’ve speculated that the next election will be fought on the environment. Can that happen if Harper has no environmental plan?

Maybe it will be a real green plan, you know one that focuses on real environmental problems(land, water, and air). We have Halifax, Victoria and Montreal dumping sewage into the ocean/rivers. We have various brown sites in Canada that need cleaning up. And last but not least there are boil water advisors across the country. Hopefully Harper will quit chasing the least harmful “pollutant” CO2 and focus on real issues.

Maybe Harper will just keep studying the greenhouse issue for 5 - 10 years, by that time the lefty-enviro’s will have moved onto something else. Maybe they will be back to a fear of another ice age.

I think that is bad headline writing. It is no secret that the Conservatives will back away from Kyoto but they will have a plan. From what I’ve read in the media it will be focused on clear air and clean water. The implication from the article is that it may go further on GHG than originally thought. Anyways, can’t say much until we see it so may as well not speculate.

That’s a bit hostile, Keith, and a bit of a straw man argument as well. Individuals of all political stripes, and all environmentalists are deeply concerned about the sewerage problems of Halifax, Victoria, Toronto and Montreal. Individuals of all political stripes and all environmentalists are deeply concerned about smog days.

And yet with centre and centre-right governments in control for the past twenty years, very little has been done. And now, if reports are accurate, Harper is not coming up with a environmental plan at all. And that runs counter to Greg’s idea that Harper would have a Kyoto-free-but-otherwise-environmentally-sound environment plan to run on if the government were to fall on Kyoto.

If true, that sort of takes wind out of the suggestion that the Conservatives can take initiative on environmental issues and snatch votes from the Liberals from that. If the reports are accurate, it suggests that Harper’s government doesn’t care about the environment, period. Not just CO2, but Montreal, Victoria and Halifax’s sewerage problems.

James, I think you are ready too much into the article. My reading has it saying that GHG reductions could be extended out but the other stuff will be in there. And the environment election is an “if they want an election” not a “for sure there will be an election on this”

Fair enough.

“And yet with centre and centre-right governments in control for the past twenty years, very little has been done.”

I assume you refer to the level of statism present in the governments when you use the terms “centre” and “centre-right”.

If political ideology is an irrelevant concern to “individuals of all political stripes” when it comes to the environment, how is the persuasion of a particular government a relevant factor?

“And now, if reports are accurate, Harper is not coming up with a environmental plan at all.”

The article you cite refers only to greenhouse gases. The CPC plan touches on many other areas.

Incidentally, the IPCC has recently downgraded its projection of the effects of “global warming”. It’s now expected that the earth will warm by an average of 2 degrees celsius over the next 94 years if CO2 emissions remain constant at 2006 levels.

It’s now expected that the earth will warm by an average of 2 degrees celsius over the next 94 years if CO2 emissions remain constant at 2006 levels.

Heh. Yeah. And with China and India rapidly industrializing, how likely do you think C02 emissions are to remain at 2006 levels?