The Difference Between Photo Op and Policy

Apparently, PMSH is trying very hard to convince us that he's serious about climate change now by sending Minister Baird out to Vancouver to inspect the mess made out of Stanley Park.

Okay, symbolically, severe weather is something that people can wrap their minds around, as opposed to climate change which is a somewhat different issue. Fair enough.

However, let's not ignore the fact that Harper and Ambrose tried their best to outright ignore the environment portfolio from the beginning. Since then, a thoroughly embarrassing performance by Ms. Ambrose at a climate conference in Africa, Harper and Ambrose have put forth a few rather tepid initiatives ( such as a 5% biofuel requirement - in a few years... ) that at best are poor attempts at addressing a problem that is rather pervasive in the world.

The argument is often made that because nations like India and China are ignoring climate change, or are adopting "grow it yourself" strategies based on the BushCo "do it yourself" model which have few or no real measurements or checks in them.

The problem is that climate change is an issue that is very tricky - it involves major initiatives both within the nation and externally. Canada is one of the top per-capita resource consuming nations in the world, and it will be a long uphill climb for us to reduce our per-person "footprint". Not only must we make huge changes internally (and in this regard, I believe that The Green Party platform has a lot of positive ideas that are worth considering), but we must be seen to "walk the talk" on the world stage in order to be a persuasive voice to encourage other countries to make changes.

Sadly, PMSH is so tied into the Alberta oil patch that it is unlikely that his government will do anything materially significant, for fear of pissing off the huge (party donation) dollars currently flooding the Alberta economy - PMSH's turf.