Bloc Albertain

Imagine if the Bloc Quebecois could somehow get Canadians all across the country to vote for them. Actually it would keep separatism at a minimum in the province, but only because the Bloc would be able to engineer a sort of reverse-takeover of the rest of the country. If the BQ formed a government it would allow them to impose a Quebec-centric agenda on the entire country.

Now for the BQ to be a national party, it would have to pay lip service to the rest of the country’s needs and desires. Any time though that Quebec had a conflict with the rest of the country, Quebec’s interests would prevail. BQ politicians, trying to get elected in the entire country would have constant trouble concealing their contempt for the rest of the nation. Inevitably old speeches would come out revealing their utter contempt for the country they wish to rule.

This Bloc-ruled Canada sounds strange, doesn’t it? Well, this is what we have, except the Bloc is not one from Quebec, but one from Alberta. As further details continue to emerge from the proposed climate-change plan of the Conservatives, it is apparent that the plan is designed to benefit Alberta’s dirty oil sector at the expense of all other industries in the rest of the country. Only a hyper-regionalist agenda could lead to such an unbalanced plan. Taken with Harper’s remarks over the years about Canada and Canadians, it should once again be obvious that the core of the Conservative party is a bunch of Alberta-first partisans who are helped along by useful idiots who happen to be ideological fellow-travelers or opportunistic political climbers in other provinces.

BCO2 and You

As a rule, I don’t tend to blog much about BC politics, but BC is sort of asserting itself as the new battleground between a carbon tax and cap-and-trade systems. BC has a carbon tax that was imposed by the current Liberal government and now their chief opponents, the NDP, are promising a cap-and-trade system if they are elected.

What system is better? The short answer is, I don’t know. What I do know is that this whole thing has gotten rather heated in the last couple of days. DeSmogBlog criticized the NDP plan, Adam objected, BCL said that the NDP had “abandoned” the environment, Adam, even less amused. This is curious given that this is the very time when federal Liberals may be thinking about ditching a carbon tax.

What this may do, unfortunately, is create a space for the global warming denialists to exploit a rift over practical policy to ensure that nothing is actually done to reduce carbon emissions. Remember their line of argument runs roughly like this: the earth is not getting hotter, if it is then the sun is doing it, if it’s us we cannot stop it, and besides, it’s a good thing anyway. The whole formula has a consistent implication – don’t do anything about global warming. Getting those of us who do not want to spend the latter part of our lives living like Mad Max to do nothing about global warming is the whole plan. I fear that this sort of rift will be another way to paralyze governments across the country into not doing anything about global warming.

For Cyclists

I found out about this site and it’s sort of interesting to track how you’ve both saved money and reduced your carbon footprint by riding a bike or walking.

What about all the insecure idiots? What will they do?

This piece has already been passed around the net as the worst piece of opinion journalism in a while. Still, really, what the hell? A sample:

GM desperately needs an obnoxious, attention-grabbing brand to keep from turning into a dreary shadow of its former self. And America needs the Hummer to remind us of what has always made our automobiles stand out, from the tailfin 1950s to the muscle car 1960s and ’70s: swagger. Americans don’t just drive their cars — they proclaim something about themselves by driving them.

It takes a certain kind of man — it’s almost always the owner of a Y chromosome — to take a gander at the Hummer, in all its broad, burly, paramilitary gas-guzzling glory, and see himself behind the wheel, striking fear and loathing in the hearts of ecologically sensitive motorists. Oprah does not drive a Hummer. But Arnold Schwarzenegger has been a proud owner. As has Sylvester Stallone. The Hummer appeals to large men of even larger ego, men who aren’t worried about their carbon footprint and believe that obstacles in life are meant not just to be surmounted but squashed flat. They like owning the beast because, when it bears down on lesser rides on the freeway, those lesser rides — even the Teutonic triple threat of Porsche/BMW/Mercedes — get out of the way. Every once in while, you see a little guy clambering out of a Hummer, painfully in need of a ladder, and you realize that it can also be viewed as a $57,000 ticket to enlarged self-esteem.

Carbon Tax!

If it means a cut in income taxes I wouldn’t mind. My car is pretty fuel efficient and the fiancee doesn’t drive so we wouldn’t likely add a second a vehicle. In other words, I’d probably come out ahead in this game.

From a strategic point of view, I think Scott is right too, the grits might as well go down fighting. It would certainly toughen up Dion’s image if he took a bold policy stance.

Sanity on Clotheslines

According to a radio report this morning, it looks as though Ontario is going to pass some kind of law to override condominium corporations that ban clotheslines for aesthetic reasons. If we are going to have increased greenhouse gas emissions, increased smog, brownouts and everything else associated with high levels of summer power consumption, I’d like to be damn sure that it isn’t a function of people who don’t like to look at damp clothes in their neighbours’ yards.

Stephen Taylor is shocked! Shocked at the Liberal website!

According to Stephen Taylor, the Liberals may be using Photoshop! He documents the horror:

“A familiar technique has been used here to emphasize the dirty particulate colour of climate change (who knew that CO₂ was a sulfuric red/yellow/brown?)

The Liberals have modified an image of a smokestack in alarmist fashion with a sepia filter to exaggerate the evils of Canadian industry and economic production.”

This is very bad since we all know that the Conservatives never alter any images on their website. Once again Stephen Taylor is distraught because other parties use the exact same political tools that his party uses. I’m sure that he longs for the day when every other party will roll over and play dead for him.

Only in the National Post

Robert Fulford gets angry at those who speak of “carbon footprints” because they belong to that set of people who do things to the English language that he does not like. What’s problematic here is that Fulford appears to be decrying a lack of economy with words, and yet, I can’t think of a more concise way to describe the greenhouse gas emissions that result from the activities of an individual, nation, industry, corporation, or what-have-you.

Another Busted Conservative Environmental Scheme

It looks like the rebates on new, fuel efficient cars aren’t really making much of a difference. I’ve said before that this government is at best interested in half-measure that it hopes will placate moderate voters, and here we are again.

Canada’s n00b Government fails on climate change

According to an article in the Star, an Environment Canada panel has given Harper’s plan a failing grade. Harper and his government are half-assing this, just as though they were school children made to do over an inadequate project (remember their first crack at this with Rona?) It appears that they stitched together the bare minimum and now they’ve been caught at it again. I suspect that Harper would rather not deal with “so-called” greenhouse gases and he’s irritated that it continues to be an issue.