If most Canadians are asked about how Canada’s environmental protection record fares in comparison to other countries in the world, the worst you tend to hear is average. Most think we are ahead of other countries. It is a point of national pride.
Today’s article in the Star points out the ugly truth, that Canada actually lags far behind other industrialised nations in meeting Kyoto commitments, even the United States.
David Suzuki also wrote an article on this very subject.
Now, I can understand voter confusion over this situation.
After all, let’s look at the choices that we’ve had:
- The Liberals talk about Kyoto, and they’ve even announced a whole raft of measures and commitments over their 12 years in power which would lead us in the right direction. But they have failed to carry though and most of the programs have been great sound bytes with no real meat to them. The best program is turning out to be the One Ton Challenge, a voluntary program for Canadian citizens to do their part. The fact that this is a drop in the bucket seems to go unmentioned in Ottawa and the voters get to feel like they are doing something personally while being sheilded from the fact that the government is not, and the targets are getting further away, not closer.
- The NDP talk a good line. They would meet Kyoto and beyond, if you believed them. But at the same time Jack Layton calls for GST relief on fuels, gas tax relief, regulated pricing, and is always in support of government subsidies to industries which would create jobs for unionized workers, regardless of the environmental record of those industries. Some NDP members want to nationalize the oil and gas industry. All this tells me that the NDP plan is at best a bunch of hollow promises and at worst economically dangerous since the NDP does not have a sound plan for how to pay for it all. There is just no understanding of Green economics.
- The Conservatives are at least honest about not proceeding with any effort toward meeting Kyoto in the first place because it would be “just too expensive.” They will get around to environmental protection when its more affordable. Right. You can hear this kind of logic south of our border as well. Does anyone think that we should ask Stephen Harper for his assessment of the cost of not adressing climate change?
The Green Party, on the other hand, sees Kyoto as a small first step in the imperitive to address climate change, and has an economic plan to make it achievable. We would stop all government subsidies to polluting industries, add taxes to pollution, resource use and waste, and make these higher costs affordable for Canadians and businesses by returning this money in the form of lower income taxes and corporate taxes. This would not only discourage pollution and waste, but would make employment less expensive and create jobs in clean industries.
This is why we need Green MP’s in Ottawa! (not to mention Victoria, Edmonton, Whitehorse, Yellowknife, Regina, Winnepeg, Toronto, Quebec City, Iqaluit, Fredrickton, Halifax, Charlottetown, and St John)
Green MP’s will use all the tools available to us to move government toward a sustainable future, both environmentally and economically.
If you like breathing clean air, and want a Canada where the reality is even better than our reputation, vote Green.
