stephen harper

Dion calls on Tories to recommit to Kyoto
CBC – 01/02/2007

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion tabled an Opposition motion on Thursday calling on the Tory government to reaffirm Canada’s commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, an accord signed by the Liberals when they were in power.

The motion demands the government “honour the principles and targets of the Kyoto Protocol in their entirety,” and calls on the Tories to create and publish a “credible” plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion introduces an Opposition motion calling on the Conservative government to reconfirm Canada’s commitment to the Kyoto protocol on Thursday.Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion introduces an Opposition motion calling on the Conservative government to reconfirm Canada’s commitment to the Kyoto protocol on Thursday.
(Tom Hanson/Canadian Press)

“Canadians are not fooled,” Dion told the House. “They know that this prime minister has no commitment to fight climate change. His only motive is to prepare for an election.”

He described the proposed Conservative alternatives to Kyoto as “baby steps.”

Dion’s motion comes as both parties hammer each other on their environmental record, and follows the recently surfaced letter Prime Minister Stephen Harper wrote in 2002 deriding the Kyoto accord.

The letter described Kyoto as a “socialist scheme” that is based on “tentative and contradictory scientific evidence” and designed to suck money out of rich countries.

Harper accepts science of climate change

Harper has since said he accepts the science of climate change, but the Tories have said that Canada has no chance of meeting its emissions targets under the Kyoto accord and must set more realistic goals for reducing greenhouse gases.

Canada was one of the first countries to sign the Kyoto accord, on April 29, 1998. The Tories have said that the Liberals may have signed the agreement, but did nothing while in power to combat greenhouse gas emissions.

The international agreement requires Canada to cut its greenhouse gas emissions to six per cent below 1990 levels by 2012. But since 1990, emissions have gone up, with the latest figures showing an increase of almost 30 per cent.

“I’m glad the Liberal party brought forward this motion today,” Environment Minister John Baird said. “It’s an opportunity to remind them of their shameful record over 13 years of inaction on the environment.”

Baird said Dion, as a former environment minister, had a track record on the issue that is “very regrettable.”

Meanwhile, Harper is sending Baird to Paris, where dozens of scientists have gathered to release an international report on global warming.  

More and more the Canadian government is bothering me with all this rubbish news about this and that. Especially since it’s all about the enviroment. Health care and the environment are the two top priorities in the country, and as usual the government is making a mockery of them. Climate change is obvious people, I was in the Artic for 10 days and there wasn’t any snow in the middle of winter; what’s up with that? There was a hurricane in Sweden and Central Europe in January; what’s up with that? Summers are hotter and become unbareable; what’s up with that?

The evidence doesn’t need to be printed in a report that takes years to publish, we just have to look out our windows to see what’s going on, and the fact that nobody is doing it makes me sick! The Canadian government bickers day and night about their stances on the enviroment. The conservative government more-or-less pulled our of Kyoto earlier this year, thanks to former environment minister Rona Ambrose, and now that it’s becoming an issue Harper want’s to get back on the band-wagon. On top of this, when the opposition decides to question about anything, the only response that Harper can come up with is drawing up the past.

Stephen Harper; you wrote the damned letter, get over it and stop trying to cover it up – we aren’t Americans. Stéphane Dion; make sure to pass that bloody law to get Canada moving on climate change initiatives – we care about our future. General population; being socialist doesn’t mean communist – I’m completely socialist and I’m not communist.

Oh and for the record, who the hell cares about 13 years ago Harper? Both the Tory government and Liberal government’s fucked up on countless things; we care about the future, so stop arguing and being meloncholly and get on like the rest of us. We have lives to live, and believe it or not we want to have a place to live, before the world collapses because of your school-yard antics.