Just answer that simple question before you advocate for Dion’s Green Shift tax schemes.

I believe that the vast majority of Canadians do care about the future of this planet and want to be engaged - to do their part to get started on putting things right. I also believe that Harper’s comments confirm that this is the *last* issue he wants to fight an election on because this government has no plan to reduce global warming.

It should trouble all Canadians that the much of the ‘4th estate’ of this country, which has historically been understood to be the guardian of democracy, has become little more than shallow uninformed opinion masquerading as journalism. There are still some journalists who take pride in their profession, but many, are content to simply report this government’s statements without even a minimum of investigation to verify their claims. Jim Travers’ story in the Star about the chain of events and people involved in the ‘NAFTA-gate’ affair was a good example of the kind of professionalism that Canadians should be insisting upon. A few phone calls gave Mr. Travers a story that no one else in the media had bothered to investigate. If Travers’ kind of professionalism is applied to The Green Shift discussion, then there should be no confusion about what a Liberal government will do to reduce climate change. The current government’s plan is to do nothing.

The Green Shift video makes it clear that this campaign will be about policy, not, as Harper would have it, about personalities and cheap shots. If the news media can rise to that challenge by reporting the facts rather than continuing to report unverified pronouncements from this government, then Canadians will have no trouble understanding it.

Now he wants to debate. He could have had the Nation’s full attention in an election debate, yet didn’t have the courage to declare non confidence.

You cannot implement change if you are not the governing power. You could have got it done, why didn’t you?

There are absolutely no GHG reduction targets within the Dion Green Shift plan. The plan is specific on yearly carbon taxation levels of $10/tonne/year over 4 years, taking carbon cost from $10/tonne to $40/tonne.

As the Green Shift plan stands now, reduction of GHGs is entirely voluntary, with only the extra cost to be mitigated. The rich will have no trouble paying the penalty, but the poor will be caught in the crunch as the cost of carbon escalates from $10/tonne to $40/tonne.

I believe there is something drastically wrong with Dion’s Green Shift plan on this basis.

While not the topic of this post, I was wondering if you could comment on the recent copyright bill fiasco. I’m somewhat unnerved by the importing of failed copyright policy from the south.

Thanks,

– Ian

It saddens me that the Harper party has so consistently made a mockery of OUR Parliament. The more silliness and noise from them, the more obvious it is how utterly devoid they are of the capacity to comprehend the issues that matter to Canadians.

“it’s time to pay for what we burn, not what we earn” is not as complicated a concept as critics claim. Canadians want to do their part to reduce greenhouse gasses, and Mr. Dion’s plan will give them that opportunity.

For a couple of decades the only contribution of some groups has been to offer nothing and undermine anything which resembles progress.

Some people like to cling to the myth that Canada was built by the hard work of the immigrants who came here from elsewhere. Not so. Canada was built on the raping and pillaging of Indigenous land and people, especially the children.

And for that I am truly sorry.

However, it must not end there. Canada must rid itself of the ignorant and arrogant attitudes that allowed that to happen in the first place, more rampant among Tories than elsewhere. Also Canada must rewrite its history to teach the truth in our schools, so fewer arrogant little pricks like “observant” (above) have the excuse of ignorance.

I agree also with “autonomy” mentioned above, though not as similar to municipalities. Indigenous Nations are sovereign peoples who relate to Canada on a nation-to-nation basis, and to whom Canada is greatly indebted. If Canada ‘cleared its debts’, autonomy could happen. In places where land claims are already settled, economic autonomy is humming along very well.

There is nothing that Indigenous Nations need from Canada except that which is legally owed to them, and still illegally withheld by our governments.