Today, on his road trip through China, Stephen Harper took another swipe at those "radical" environmentalists:
Our government is committed to ensuring that Canada has the infrastructure necessary to move our energy resources to those diversified markets,” Harper said. “We will uphold our responsibility to put the interests of Canadians ahead of foreign money and influence that seek to obstruct development in Canada.
It's always interesting to compare what Harper says today to what he said yesterday -- particularly when he was running for election. David Boyd, from Simon Fraser University, writes that:
In 2006, Prime Minister Harper said, “Poor air quality isn’t just a minor irritant to be endured. It is a serious problem that poses an increasing risk to the health and well-being of Canadians.”
In 2007, Harper said, "climate change is the greatest threat to the future of humanity." During his five years in minority government, he blamed Canada's environmental failings on previous Liberal governments. But, Boyd writes:
Five years later, the Conservatives have continued the Liberal tradition of addressing climate change through grand pronouncements, ineffective policies, and counterproductive actions. The federal home energy retrofit program has been canceled, reinstated, and canceled again. Canada allocated a smaller proportion of the recession-induced federal stimulus to green infrastructure and renewable energy than any other nation. After years of surreptitiously undermining climate change negotiations, Canada brazenly joined the US as the only countries in the world to renounce their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, using false arguments to do so.
And consider what has happened to our standing in the world during that time:
That Canada has become an international laggard in environmental policy and practice is now an incontrovertible fact. In 2009, the Conference Board of Canada ranked Canada 15th out of 17 wealthy industrialized nations on environmental performance. In 2010, researchers at Simon Fraser University ranked Canada 24th out of 25 OECD nations on environmental performance.
Yale and Columbia ranked Canada 37th in their 2012 Environmental Performance Index, far behind green leaders such as Sweden, Norway, and Costa Rica, and trailing major industrial economies including Germany, France, Japan, and Brazil. Worse yet, our performance is deteriorating, as we rank 52nd in terms of progress over the 2000-2010 period.
The hypocrisy is stunning.
8 comments:
harper has nothing besides hypocrisy. Take that away from him and all you have is a revolting figure clutching itself in the corner saying "give me power! more power! i want power!"
Hypocrisy is what makes harper capable of appearing human.
And he is not bothered in the least that he can't be taken at his word, thwap.
Jack Layton said that when Harper broke his own fixed date election law, he realized that Harper couldn't be taken at his word.
How long will it take Canadians to figure out what Layton figured out early on?
These are the outcomes any country gets from authoritarian rule. Yes it's rank hypocrisy but that's completely irrelevant to a moral deviant like Harper.
In an authoritarian state, Mound, Oceania can be at war with Eurasia, and then switch enemies, -- declaring that Eastasia is the new threat.
I used to teach 1984 in the hope that my students would refuse to have the wool pulled over their eyes.
Perhaps my efforts were wasted.
Harper's hypocrisy on MP pensions is equally stunning: http://www.straight.com/article-600471/vancouver/thom-corbett-prime-minister-stephen-harper-pension-pig-he-once-mocked
Harper will be getting over $200K pension annually but he wants to reduce the measly pensions of Seniors getting $6.5K, or less, annually from the OAS? The difference could mean whether some poor Seniors eat dog food or have to forego certain medicines they need. Many of these Seniors apparently get by on $25K or less annually: http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1128727--pension-protest-seniors-labour-activists-occupy-20-ontario-tory-mp-offices
And Harper considers himself a Christian? Guess his God must help those who help themselves (to the taxpayers' largese)??
I'm afraid the Facebook generation probably would be too challenged by 1984. They're already accustomed to surrendering their freedoms for a bit of supposed attention and ego-stroking.
Or perhaps be believes that God is on his side -- just like the Crusaders of old.
Perhaps that's what Harper's success is all about, Mound.
A little ego stroking, some boutique tax cuts, and telling the citizens that they're the best in the world -- or at least that they have the best finance minister in the world -- and you slide safely into home plate.
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