Turn-About Par Excellence!

All right, we can still be suspicious. We can look at the scorn with which an earlier Stephen Harper, pre-prime-ministership spoke of the Kyoto Accord and what its implementation might wreak on the economic health of Canada. That was then, it most certainly was. His words - now seen to have been let's say, rash and certainly not with the angels - come back to haunt him now. But should they? Fair enough, he said those things, he should have to live with that.

And he does appear to have done a complete turn-about. We're not entirely naive, after all. New analyses, statistics, evidence has come to light. Some of that evidence as plain to the ordinary person on the street as the unsettling weather systems that have been complicating our lives, the clear evidence that the climate we've long been familiar with is changing, and it would appear, irrecovably. While there's still some doubt as to how much of what we're experiencing and have yet to experience is due to human interference is almost irrelevant.

Whether is the earth's natural rhythms, sun flares, or the earth's flora and fauna imploding upon themselves hardly matters. Climate change is real and it's rapidly approaching the point where it can no longer be ignored. This is a world-wide problem and requires a world-wide solution. There is enough alarm circulating about this problem, enough that the United Nations is prepared to host an emergency summit in climate change.

And look here: Prime Minister Stephen Harper has stated he would attend that summit if invited. He would state at that summit that "Canada's decision to do nothing over the past decade was a mistake"; as indeed it most certainly was. If he is sincere and there is no reason that we should imagine otherwise, his administration should be given an opportunity to seriously get to work, initiate and institute meaningful steps that will bring results in doing our part to fight the symptoms of climate change.

There are other messages Mr. Harper plans to convey to this potential successor to the Kyoto protocol which may come out of the UN's emergency session. "The first is that we all recognize this is a serious environmental problem that needs immediate action. Canada's decision to do nothing over the past decade was a mistake, and we want to do better". He gets a failing grade for that. Too partisan; we want to surmount party politics. Don't point to the failures of the past. Resolve to improve the record, and do it.

He does point out the obvious, as well, that an effective international effort must have the support of all major polluter-countries. Countries like the United States, China and India must be included. These countries must see their way clear to joining an international effort. In so stating, Mr. Harper makes it clear he isn't loath to name Canada's continent-partner, and good on him.

And instead of continuing their defamation campaign against the Conservative government, the Liberals, when faced with an issue of such monumental importance, would do well to leave partisanship and meanness of spirit behind, however temporarily. Stop digging up those old quotes now sadly outdated, stale and having little bearing on the situation at present. Yes, it's true that the Conservatives have reversed themselves and some of the steps taken have the effect of re-naming old Liberal initiatives. It's a first step at reversal.

The commitment appears to be there, stop degrading it. Two can play at that game, and Mr. Dion's own record of lack of achievement plays against him. Stephane Dion in a January 2007 interview claimed Canada has the "cleanest" air in the developed world. To which Mr. Harper responds "Our emissions are near the bottom of the developed world, not just on carbon dioxide but on nitrogen oxide, sulphur oxide. The leader of the Liberal party should stop denying the science" said Mr. Harper.

Time to grow up fellas.