Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Pathetic Harper

Stephen Harper looked pathetic this week when arguing that Stephane was "denying" the science of clean air. It would take much more than Harper's stumping to change the truth on this one. Harper has been caught in an "inconvenient truth" situation... He was part of the "Alberta Oil Cartel" (so to speak) which got the neo-Cons elected - through all sorts of 3rd party manipulation (see National Citizen's Coalition, certain church groups, the Big Oil lobby, NRA, Farmers For Justice, etc., etc.).

Up to this year key Cons have been denying global warming. Now that polls are showing this to be a possible election issue, Harpo decides he needs to destroy the issue - rather than do anything about the actual problem. Harper looked like a clown when questioning Dion's commitment to the issue. He continues to gripe about Dion not doing anything... then goes on to cancel programs we Liberals did put into place (ex: Energuide). He fails to consider that Mr. Dion was part of a cabinet - not the PM - and may have had a lot less say than Ministers of other portfolios (ex: Finance, Public Works, etc.). There were many other priorities in the post-911 era.

Whatever the reason (and we don't need to make excuses), it is just a joke for the Cons to be questioning a dedicated intellectual's commitment to this matter. I had a few opportunities to meet with Mr. Dion over the years. I clearly recall the environment being the framework of a discussion he had with Young Liberals in the Westin Hotel in Calgary way back in 2004. He talked about how important the issue is, and how important Kyoto is. This was back when Mr. Dion was engaged in Mr. Harper's "war against Kyoto". Mr. Dion was a champion for Kyoto. If there was any reason why we Liberals couldn't do more than we did, it was due to the very LOUD NOISE coming out of Alberta - led by Mr. Harper, and Ralph Klein - both rabidly opposed to any measures that would impact Alberta's oil industry.

Mr. Harper is now in a bit of a conundrum. Unfortunately his lies about "a greener Canada" wouldn't cause him to lose votes in Alberta - no matter how angry people there get. Alberta is a very safe province for Harp. This makes it very easy for him to lie to the rest of Canada. All I gotta say is: If you think things are a little scary now, just see what happens if these clowns are given an accidental majority by the Canadian people.

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