The Emperor Has No Clothes

What I like about this piece by the Canadian Press is its tone of skepticism. Harper's blatant use of a natural disaster to create political theatre, (special lighting for the Peace Tower, is suddenly ok, when lowering the flag for our fallen troops is forbidden?)is at least called out. I am beginning to think Harper has succeeded so well, in making everyone cynical, that there is no gesture he could make that people wouldn't examine six ways to Sunday to find the political motive. Mister Vulcan chess master may be headed into an end game.

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Let The Finger Pointing Begin

Gordon Brown commenting on the failure of Copenhagen said:

"We must learn lessons from Copenhagen and the tough negotiations that took place. Never again should we face the deadlock that threatened to pull down these talks. Never again should we let a global deal to move towards a greener future be held to ransom by only a handful of countries."

Even if he doesn't mean Canada, isn't sad that it is so damn easy to imagine Harper and his thugs holding the world to ransom?

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After You

Did anyone else see Harper's "performance" at his news conference? It was pretty nauseating the way he misrepresented Kyoto, but totally par for the course. Also, I wish someone had had the stones to ask him whether since harmonization with America is so vital, it will mean that we will wait for the U.S. to finish adopting every last possible regulation, before moving on ours (something that a. may never happen and b. if it does happen, will take years, if not decades)? It sounded to my ears that Canada will do nothing at all, not one thing, until there is absolutely no chance that the Americans will do less than us. Canada's new motto should be, "Not one inch further than the Americans" (and the use of imperial was deliberate).

Saturday Update: The Globe answered my question and it is yes, we are going to wait until the Americans are done before we act at all. It makes it sound as if we aren't even going to try to have any influence on the outcome (unless, I suspect, it looks as if the Americans might actually try to do something bold, which is highly unlikely). The good news, I guess, is that Harper may be long retired to Arizona before the process is finished in the U.S. and his successor might have a less inanimate view of climate policy.

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