OTTAWA — Canada hopes to achieve a North American climate-change deal with U.S. president-elect Barack Obama and will begin working on the file within weeks, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Wednesday.
Meantime, officials told The Canadian Press the Harper government has been waiting for the departure of President George W. Bush to work with his successor on an integrated carbon market.
I believe that Ed Stelmach has come out against even a national, let alone international carbon trading regime as being against Alberta interests. Certainly, Alberta companies will have to buy the lion's share carbon credits if anything like this goes through. Tory on Tory violence?
The HarperCons are simply taking advantage of the media spotlight following the Obama victory to appear "modern" on climate change. What they do behind the scenes will be what counts. They wanted to score some pub-op points while all of Canada was watching American Liberals bask in victory. Everyone wants to be an American liberal today... lol... Too bad Conservatives - you're the "Republicans" of Canada.
ReplyDeleteI watched the election results with glee last night - Harper and his Con friends (who you recall tried to sabotage Obama's campaign early on) were probably picking their jaws up off the floor and wiping away each others' tears. Hey, it was the ultimate Conservative nightmare: A liberal Democratic couple in the White House, who addressed same-sex couples in his victory speech, and who, ahem, seems to be of a visible minority...
Oh, to be a fly on the wall in top Reform-a-Tory living rooms last night!
WG,
ReplyDeleteWell I wouldn't want to give any credit where none is due, but a number of credible environmentalists have suggested Canada's waiting on a new U.S. administation before acting, basically because we would want/have to join up with any U.S. effort when they made one anyway, so why do anything before we knew what they were up to? I don't necessarily agree with the strategy, but from some people it was suggested in good faith.
Thank God Harper's minions won't remember what they believed yesterday about Global Warming.
ReplyDeleteBut it doesn't matter. Even the Obama Democrats won't say no to oil and water (which I'm suspecting Harper is more than willing to serve up to *save* North America) and American liberals are notoriously incurious/indifferent about how the influence of their country plays out in the client states.
Alberta was the first province to regulate ghg's (March 2007) and set up a carbon trading system.
ReplyDeleteAlberta aiming for carbon trading
July 3, 2007
CBC News
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/calgary/story/2007/07/03/emissions-trading.html
Emissions trading can begin
The Edmonton Journal
July 01, 2007
EDMONTON - Alberta carbon emitters can start trading for carbon credits even though there's no registry established yet to register the trades and no finalized protocols for them, says Alberta Environment...
http://www.canada.com/chtv/reddeer/story.html?id=e4d161b4-d02b-450a-bed4-7b5179c7a575&k=28631
http://www.blakes.com/english/view_printer_bulletin.asp?ID=889
So an economy-killing carbon plan to deal with phantom spooks is our reward for having Obama tear up our twenty-year-old free trade agreement?
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's gonna pay off huge...
So an economy-killing carbon plan to deal with phantom spooks is our reward for having Obama tear up our twenty-year-old free trade agreement?
ReplyDeleteHuh?
No Tory on Tory violence would be likely. It is a plain fact that Harper's current plan for Canada and Stelmach's current plan for Alberta cannot be reconciled, but this has led to nothing.
ReplyDeleteObama having a bunch of Canadians looking over his shoulder, offering tips on a climate plan, is a laughable situation to believe in. On climate, Canada was already irrelevant laggard, a role model for nobody, and Harper has only made this country more of one.
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ReplyDelete"Alberta was the first province to regulate ghg's"
ReplyDeleteWell, not really. It's a meagre 'pay-to-pollute' PR scheme that costs oil companies small change.
I think Harper will continue to push for a Luntz 'intensity target' system, a PR scam Luntz has since denounced.
See
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/06/27/luntz-gw/