Oh Dear, Loose Tongues in the Liberal Fold
Here's an unexpected downer for the Liberal party as it is currently comprised under its new leader, and an unanticipated boost for the current Conservative government in Canada. Who might have thought that lips hitherto sealed in party solidarity might be unleashed so damningly? The New Government of Canada must be wildly partying into the wee hours of the Ottawa night.
It's not that we didn't know. Our memories are not that faulty. We're recalling events of the fairly recent past, after all. Previous governments which promised much and produced little. Previous governments that hailed themselves as saviours to the nation and the planet and turned out to be heretics and deniers, self-serving platitude-artists and fraudulent disappointments.
No less a Liberal back room elite than Eddie Goldenberg publicly confessing that the Chretien administration of which he was such a high-profile member was woefully unprepared, uncommitted and unrepentant. "I am not sure that Canadian public opinion was immediately ready for some of the concrete implementation measures that governments would have to take to address the issue of climate change", confessed this Liberal stalwart.
"Nor was the government itself even ready at the time with what had to be done." As though the electorate could not see this happening before its very eyes. As though we who were interested in the subject couldn't see the frustration too obvious to ignore that someone of the calibre of David Anderson - one-time Minister of the Environment, a truly committed Liberal - faced with his party's disinterest and unwillingness to unleash necessary funds.
The short-term targets, promised so grandiously by Jean Chretien as prime minister during the Kyoto round in climate change were recognized as too ambitious, requiring too much of a budget extension to meet. This the ruling Liberal elites knew, but that did not stop them from exulting in their grand ambitions for the country, accepting the accolades which accrued to them for responsible environmental management.
By decree, verbally, and on paper, and with sincere collaboration with other Kyoto-signatory nations, but never in implementation or planning or practical determination to forge on with a needed programme to meet our obligations. Which describes exactly how the Liberals have always worked. And if we don't believe another former environment minister in that same government, then who can we believe?
At the time of the signing of the Kyoto Agreement on Climate Change Christine Stewart was the environment minister for the Chretien government. She has now gone public to criticize the former finance minister of that same government, later the succeeding Liberal prime minister, Paul Martin, for refusing to release funds necessary to begin Kyoto-promised initiatives to reduce Canada's greenhouse gas emissions.
What's more she has implicated the intergovernmental affairs minister of the day, now Liberal leader, Stephane Dion, as having expressed no interest whatever in the environmental cause. This man is clearly, despite his protestations to the contrary, a born-again environmentalist, a title he lavishes scornfully upon the current prime minister, Stephen Harper.
As for David Anderson, an ardent environmentalist, a Liberal who displayed the courage of his convictions, despite party disinterest and even enmity, he goes out of his way to support his colleague, stating "Christine Stewart did not get the support she needed and deserved". Mr. Anderson "can't recall" Mr. Dion having taken a stand for or against Kyoto to the cabinet of the day. He did opine, however, that placing Mr. Dion in the environment portfolio in the Paul Martin-led Liberal government signalled that Canada would not pursue an aggressive environmental agenda.
So the same Stephane Dion who boasts of his past record \on the environment within a government which cared deeply for the portfolio and which now points a disgusted finger of accusation at the current government for its "wasted year" on fighting climate change is a fraud who also has the gall to say "I might just be the most influential Leader of the Opposition in a generation".
This is the man whose intention it is to make the battle over the environment the foremost issue to be placed before the electorate in a forthcoming general election. Who are we to doubt the practical experience and opinion of members of his own party who know him as he really is?
It's not that we didn't know. Our memories are not that faulty. We're recalling events of the fairly recent past, after all. Previous governments which promised much and produced little. Previous governments that hailed themselves as saviours to the nation and the planet and turned out to be heretics and deniers, self-serving platitude-artists and fraudulent disappointments.
No less a Liberal back room elite than Eddie Goldenberg publicly confessing that the Chretien administration of which he was such a high-profile member was woefully unprepared, uncommitted and unrepentant. "I am not sure that Canadian public opinion was immediately ready for some of the concrete implementation measures that governments would have to take to address the issue of climate change", confessed this Liberal stalwart.
"Nor was the government itself even ready at the time with what had to be done." As though the electorate could not see this happening before its very eyes. As though we who were interested in the subject couldn't see the frustration too obvious to ignore that someone of the calibre of David Anderson - one-time Minister of the Environment, a truly committed Liberal - faced with his party's disinterest and unwillingness to unleash necessary funds.
The short-term targets, promised so grandiously by Jean Chretien as prime minister during the Kyoto round in climate change were recognized as too ambitious, requiring too much of a budget extension to meet. This the ruling Liberal elites knew, but that did not stop them from exulting in their grand ambitions for the country, accepting the accolades which accrued to them for responsible environmental management.
By decree, verbally, and on paper, and with sincere collaboration with other Kyoto-signatory nations, but never in implementation or planning or practical determination to forge on with a needed programme to meet our obligations. Which describes exactly how the Liberals have always worked. And if we don't believe another former environment minister in that same government, then who can we believe?
At the time of the signing of the Kyoto Agreement on Climate Change Christine Stewart was the environment minister for the Chretien government. She has now gone public to criticize the former finance minister of that same government, later the succeeding Liberal prime minister, Paul Martin, for refusing to release funds necessary to begin Kyoto-promised initiatives to reduce Canada's greenhouse gas emissions.
What's more she has implicated the intergovernmental affairs minister of the day, now Liberal leader, Stephane Dion, as having expressed no interest whatever in the environmental cause. This man is clearly, despite his protestations to the contrary, a born-again environmentalist, a title he lavishes scornfully upon the current prime minister, Stephen Harper.
As for David Anderson, an ardent environmentalist, a Liberal who displayed the courage of his convictions, despite party disinterest and even enmity, he goes out of his way to support his colleague, stating "Christine Stewart did not get the support she needed and deserved". Mr. Anderson "can't recall" Mr. Dion having taken a stand for or against Kyoto to the cabinet of the day. He did opine, however, that placing Mr. Dion in the environment portfolio in the Paul Martin-led Liberal government signalled that Canada would not pursue an aggressive environmental agenda.
So the same Stephane Dion who boasts of his past record \on the environment within a government which cared deeply for the portfolio and which now points a disgusted finger of accusation at the current government for its "wasted year" on fighting climate change is a fraud who also has the gall to say "I might just be the most influential Leader of the Opposition in a generation".
This is the man whose intention it is to make the battle over the environment the foremost issue to be placed before the electorate in a forthcoming general election. Who are we to doubt the practical experience and opinion of members of his own party who know him as he really is?
Labels: Government of Canada
posted by Pieface | 10:50 AM
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