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In Canada It's a Gov't Versus Its People on Climate Change
UXBRIDGE - The Canadian public is completely at odds with its own government on climate change, a new survey revealed Friday.
Windmills generate electricity in the windy rolling foothills of the Rocky Mountains near the town of Pincher Creek, Alberta. According to a poll, Canadians overwhelmingly agreed with the statement that: "We need to have an economy that is in harmony with nature, which recognizes and respects the planet.(REUTERS/Todd Korol) A large majority of Canadians want urgent action on climate, including redirecting military expenditures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In sharp contrast, the Stephen Harper-led Conservative minority government used parliamentary trickery to kill pending legislation to reduce emissions that had already been passed by the majority of Canada's elected representatives.
"This is a real low point in Canadian democracy," said Andrew Weaver, a climate scientist at the University of Victoria.
"It's an abuse of democracy like we've never seen before in this country," Weaver told IPS.
Canada has a multi-party parliamentary system. In May, a majority of Canada's elected members of parliament (MPs) passed Bill C-311, the Climate Change Accountability Act, committing the country to a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2020. The only reason Bill C-311 passed is that the anti-climate-action Harper government has just one-third of the votes.
After Bill C-311 was passed, unelected senators in the Canadian Senate were supposed to review and debate its merits and then pass the bill into law as per usual. The Senate's role is to give pending legislation a second look, offer suggested changes, but not overturn what elected MPs have already voted for.
Instead, Conservative senators successfully engineered a snap vote Tuesday night to kill the bill without notice and without debate when many other senators were not present.
"Whether you supported the bill or not, they prevented any discussion, any debate about it. There should be an election over this," said an outraged Weaver.
Weaver also pointed out that global temperature measurements taken through the end of October show this year has been the warmest ever recorded. The latest climate science continues to show climate change is happening faster and with more impacts than previously projected.
Prime Minister Harper said Bill C-311 "sets irresponsible targets... throwing hundreds of thousands and possibly millions of people out of work".
Weaver scoffed at Harper's exaggerated claim of millions of jobs at risk. "Does he think Canadians are morons?"
As for emissions reduction targets, scientists say a 25- percent reduction from 1990 levels by 2020 is not nearly enough to stabilise global temperatures at two degrees C above what they have been for tens of thousands of years. Canada's reductions should be at least 45 percent by 2020 and reach zero by 2050, based on the latest science.
According to Weaver, the message the Harper government is sending to the upcoming United Nations climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico starting at the end of the month is that "Canada is a dinosaur...with a government controlled by the oil patch and the tar sands industry."
In contrast to the actions of its government, the Canadian public agrees industrialised countries like Canada have an international obligation to significantly reduce their emissions, according to the poll released Friday. Conducted by leading polling agency Environics Research Inc., it found that some 85 percent of Canadians surveyed agreed that "Industrialised countries ... should be the most responsible for reducing current emissions."
"Canadians agree that rich countries must bear most of the responsibility for reducing emissions," says Andrea Harden- Donahue of Council of Canadians, a large Canadian NGO and one of the co-sponsors of the poll.
"If Canadians were deciding our climate policy we would be following a very different path," Harden-Donahue told IPS.
The vast majority (87 percent) of Canadians polled agreed that climate change results from too much focus on economic growth and consumerism. And they also overwhelmingly agreed with the statement that: "We need to have an economy that is in harmony with nature, which recognises and respects the planet."
The poll questions are based on those agreed to by participants at the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia earlier this year. The Canadian poll is one of several polls that are part of a Global Referendum on Climate Change that will document the views of the people of world. The final results will be presented at the U.N. climate conference in Cancun and present some context for what happens at the official negotiations.
The poll also found that over 70 percent of Canadians support redirecting military spending toward efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the idea of a World Climate and Justice Tribunal to judge and penalise countries and corporations whose actions have contributed climate change.
Over 80 percent of Canadians believe the Canadian government should invest in "green jobs" and transition programmes for workers and communities negatively affected by a shift away from fossil fuels.
"There is a real disconnect between the government and the public in Canada on climate change," said Harden-Donahue. That disconnect raises important questions about the state of democracy in Canada. And the killing of Bill C-3111 raises even more questions, she says.
Canadian media are complicit in their failure to cover events like the World's People's Conference and to consistently report on how climate change will impact Canadians and developing countries, she said.
Canada was widely criticised at the last climate meeting in Copenhagen for ignoring its international commitments to reduce emissions under the Kyoto Protocol, for refusing to agree to any mandatory emissions cuts and for defending the enormous emissions of greenhouse gases from Alberta tar sands.
"Canada's international reputation is tarnished because of the Harper government's failure to act on climate change," said Harden-Donahue.
Through manipulation of the media and pandering to the uninformed, the Harper government pretends to be taking action on climate while doing the opposite, said Weaver. "This government acts as if climate change is a big game."
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36 Comments so far
Show AllIt sounds like Canadian government is as flawed as America's. If the majority of Canadians feel climate change should be addressed through national policy, then why isn't it? Clearly, the parliamentary system up there does not reflect the will of the people. In England the parliamentary government has "votes of confidence" and if the Prime Minister fails to win one of those, there is a new election. Doesn't the same thing exist in Canada? If so, why isn't there such a vote? Sorry...I do not understand the system.
Thanks much for the very helpful recap.
MEP
Thanks for the information. Are there regular elections in Canada or do elections only come about through the success of a "no confidence" vote on the budget or whatever? If so, when's the next one?
It sounds as if most Canadians are pro-environment as long as it does not affect their pocketbooks, a situation similar to America. Harper is disliked, but there is no one out there who generates any enthusiasm among the population. And I suppose the Lib Dems did themselves in through corruption a few years ago. Do I have a correct read on things?
The prairie provinces tend to be pretty conservative vis a vis the environment. Otherwise, how to explain the infatuation with Tar Sands in Alberta? While Canadians seem less excited by the military than Americans, they are just as single-minded when it comes to making a buck. Not surprising, I suppose.
"It sounds as if most Canadians are pro-environment as long as it does not affect their pocketbooks, a situation similar to America."
Very true. The Provincial Government of Ontario (Liberals) introduced a tax on certain household chemicals known to detrimental to the environment. The reason for the tax, if I recall, was twofold: first as a disincentive to use those products (similar to taxes on cigarettes) and second to help pay for the cleanup of those chemicals from the environment (similar to a portion of taxes levied on cigarettes, which are intended for future health care costs).
I'm sure that many of those that objected to the Ontario tax/levy, were egged on by the corporations that produce and market those goods. Nevertheless, the people of Ontario were 'successful' in getting the tax repealed.
The Conservatives are all but asking for the Opposition parties to vote No Confidence and bring down the Government.
The reason is this. Canadians tend to react negatively to these votes too soon after a previous election. What would happen is the Conservatives would then claim said parties responsible for "An uneeded and costly election, so soon after the last during a time of crisis". This tends to swing a few percentage votes their way.
Next the opposition Liberals (The other major party) are still in disarray. Their leader Michael Igantief is not popular with Canadians. Traditional Liberal supporters see him as no different then Harper in that he a Corporatist who supported the US war on Iraq while he was a Professer in some US University.
The NDP have really not got anyone excited outside their traditional supporters so have little chance of growth. Coupled with this is the expense of running elections. While there strict campaign finance laws there are still donations that come from Industry and Individuals and the Conservatives do better fund raising. Other Political parties would have to go into debt to finance another election.
Parties like the Greens would be even worse off as they would be hard pressed to put a candidate in every riding.
So at the end of the day the "No Confidence Vote" is not so easily used as it puts the Conservatives in the position of winning an outright majority. The opposition likely feels that until there a REAL Big issue that will turn their fortunes around, it not worth the risk of an election.
Climate change is not seen as a large enough issue to shift voters away from the Conservatives and unfortunately so. Just like in the US "its the economy".
Now to the Senate. That was a dirty trick and a very hypocritical move on the part of harper. I doubt it will stoke up enough anger in the voter.
The more I think about moving to Canada in the hopes of moving to a civilized country, the more it seems like it's not that different than the US. It sure makes me wish New Zealand wasn't so far away.
The more I think about moving to Canada in the hopes of moving to a civilized country, the more it seems like it's not that different than the US. It sure makes me wish New Zealand wasn't so far away.
Canada has swung so far to the right with the Big Business parties that pretty much everything amounts to the government versus the people on all issues.
The "center" has moved far to the right. I don't know how old you are, but I remember when there was a "center" in Canadian politics. Even the NDP is now occupying the spot that used to be occupied by the Liberals. There is no left in Canada from an electoral point of view.
Judging from comments in the Toronto Star web page, regarding the Canadian Senate rejection of the climate bill, at least half of Canadians in the GTA are vehement AGW deniers, particularly the suburbanites.
And yes, the splitting of the left in the Canadian parliament (leberal, NDP and the Bloc), as well as many other countries (Germany in particular comes to mind) is a lesson for those proposing a Green Party solution here in the US.
"A large majority of Canadians want urgent action on climate,"
Did the poll contain any reference to what it might cost Canadians to "act on climate change".
On the other hand, come "global warming" the weather is gonna be a lot milder in Canada so the fuel consumption would probably go down, hence the carbon emission lower.
"including redirecting military expenditures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions"
Good one. Canada has virtually no military to speak of.
The "virtually no military" is being asked to remain in Afghanistan till 2014 in spite of Harper's lying promise for the troops to leave next year. Yep, Harper's government has to be in sync with the military industrial complex in the USA.
There is no way global warming will be beneficial because it will bring unusual weather patterns including floods and drought.
There is also no way for Canada to claim environmental stewardship while the Tar Sands oil extraction continues - it's one of the largest environmental disasters on earth.
The right wing Senate (Harper promised to get rid of the Senate, remember?) pulled a fast one behind closed doors, much like any dictatorship. The Harper government will pay for their stand on these two issues because most Canadians are against sending troops to Afghanistan and will be against killing this bill. Harper's a loser.
Or did it contain any reference to 'what it might cost Canadians if they DON'T act on climate change'?
And, granted, fuel consumption MIGHT go down with milder weather . . . but there could also be increased cattle/manure production for the same reason. Hence lower carbon emission, as you've stated, but increased GH gas emissions.
(We could 'what if' back and forth all day.)
And Canada's military looks small especially when compared to the bloated behemoth to the south. (When all you make are hammers every solution looks like a nail.)
That the USA has a Military that far too large and sucks up far too much wealth, hardly means "Canada has No Military to speak of".
The fact is Canada is in the top 20 nations for Miltary spending yet has only one country on its borders.
This is sort of like someone eating 5 whole chickens , 10 pounds of spaghetti, 2 tbone steaks, 695 french fries, 2 apple pies and 4 pints of ice cream saying "God look at that guy all he had was steak and potatoes..he didnt eat anything..."
Each member of the Canadian Senate needs to wake up one morning with the bleeding severed head of a horse lying next to him or her. Although this is not fair to horses, the message has to be sent very very clearly.
The Canadian Senate is not a governing government chamber - it is a place for people with gout to sit in stuffed chairs and smoke cigars. It is a reward for long public service, while being able to speak Canada's two official languages: English and Money.
When it becomes an interfering club for plutocrats to fuck the will of the people - as expressed by their elected representatives - then its time to get rid of the Senate. That's my opinion.
Trylon
TV always was a wasteland. Now it's getting worse. I like the History Channel but just now I saw a show about how many Chinese miners die in coal mines, how this used to be the case in the US before strict regulations were in place.
Every reference was to regulations passed in the sixties and seventies. Not a word about how it has all been ignored, repealed, or just underfunded until the agencies no longer existed in any meaningful way.
Pure propaganda. Misinformation, disinformation, and just plain lies. And obviously made for middle school viewing---the sixties and seventies never even existed.
The US operates by and for the rich. History began with 1980 and Ronald Reagan. The rich have fought for everything they have in their war on the middle and poor classes. The rich are at war with the poor. The rich have always been at war with the poor.
When it gets bad enough, people will act.
Like a lot of countries now - the USA, Britain, Australia to name a few, Canada has one party - the Corporate Party. It has two faces - one 'conservative', the other 'progressive' but no matter which group is nominally running the country - the outcome for regular citizens is the same - they're SOL every day in every way.
In these places, democracy is a sham -- it's pseudo democracy and the vast majority of citizens have no clue as to how screwed they really are. You would think people would wake up when plutocrats like Steve Harper drop even the pretext of democracy (appointed senators trumping elected parliamentarians) but no - no glimmer of hope in that direction.
So as far as dodging the climate change bullet goes, if you want to save the planet for future generations, you will have to do it yourself -- by consuming far less of everything and having 1 child in order to get the population down despite howls of protest from Big Business, Big Religion, and Big Religious Corporate Government.
No glimmer of hope for an outburst of outrage whenever Harper trumps the parliamentary system for his own benefit (conning the GG into proroguing, stacking the Senate to kill C-311) because no one in Canada understands the parliamentary system, it's nuances or its traditions. Which suits the plutocracy just fine. Can't have pesky rules governing democracy getting in the way of making money.
Well, we all know western democracies are in a shambles and that the march Rightward is complete. What are we going to do about it now? Wait till climate change sinks us all? And by the way, Manitoba recently had a category 2 hurricane. Ever heard of that in the middle of the continent?!! This is about the biggest weather news ever and it got a few wild pictures taken but no discussion of the enormity or uniqueness (but not for long) of such a weather event.
So I ask again, as I read article after article in Common Dreams describing the problem, what can we do to defeat Corporate Government? No one I know has any ideas. I already don't shop. I grow all my own food organically and sell locally what I can't eat. I'm a bloody paragon but it has no impact as far as I can see. Oh how I long for an idea, any idea in the action department.
Chancellor Harper has little use for Parliament, democracy or Canadians for that matter. He cares only for himself, a cold fish who is brittle, narcissistic and a control freak. He is forever telling Canadians what they think and has shut down Parliament twice now to keep himself in power.
He is also a fundamentalist evangelical right-wing Christian (sound familiar?) who believes in the Rapture and the important part that he will play in it. Canada also has a Science Minister who does not believe in evolution and a whole swack of the cabinet think the world started just 6000 years ago.
As an Ender, Harper will welcome global warming and any other disaster that might bring on his beloved end-times.
This ender ideology permeates just about every decision he makes, thus the war in the worst part of Afghanistan and his unconditional, cheerleading support for Israel. Jews will convert to Christianity at the last moment according fundamentalist bible prophecy.
What we need in Canada and the USA is a good socialist revolution but the cold war propaganda has entirely decimated any rational discussion of the possibility as all the old straw man arguments get repeated over and over again and....Gramsci's notion of hegemony really needs to be studied here, and how to break it. Right now as far as I can tell every social institution in the USA has pretty well been corrupted by capitalism ( imagine the former Soviet Union experiencing the kinds of problems we have been having and reading about it in our press) this brings up the issue of legitimacy. In the USA this lack of legitimacy usually leads to political apathy and we are effected by it just as much in Canada as people in the USA perhaps even more so given the brewhaaha generated by US elections. In any case, I b eleive socialism is the answer to our problems but this solution has been so "decimated" by propaganda-and the real problems with Stalinization that were experienced in the SU that I do not hold out much hope of a working class consciousness developing ( since we are all middle class anyway right hahaha joke on us) The only hope I see is from South America developing the Socialist idea among even more nations than there are now and through the human connections that exist between the north and south perhaps there is some hope...And those countries have experienced enough grief at the hands of capitalist "democracy" not to fall for the BS about most free most democratic etc etc that so many Americans have had shoved down their throats...I would suggest that we not let the bs about drug cartels and letting the dea go down there because all they really are doing is wiping out union leaders and social activists with the war on drugs as a cover...so the more we expose this the better off we will be....for starters..
Cheers,
RR
Stephen Harper hails from the province of the tar sands, Alberta, which receives huge amounts of revenue from it. Many Albertans would have a sissy fit if that revenue was slashed. The rest of the country represents the vast majority of the supporters of the Climate Change Accountability Act... What more needs to be said?
Our communty's message - delivered to our MP - ignored ...
http://vimeo.com/8243815
Thanks Suzan. We all know who governs, but I appreciate your commitment.
My fellow Canadians are a shallow and selfish lot. All the retoric about fairness and moderation is bullshit. Just ask yourselves, countrymen and countrywomen, can you imagine Canadians ever electing a Prime Minister who is not Caucasian? Imagine, a PM who is of Aboriginal origin, or African or Asian? Most Canadians are hardwired bigots and middleclass wimps. They talk the talk but that's all. I speak as a middleclass, white male of 50, who has lost most of his respect for his Country.
Hence, Harper will do pretty well what he pleases and still get re-elected, as long as the economy keeps most of the middleclass affluent. A bit negative, but realistic.