Liberal Dalton McGuinty's environmental position of hypocrisy

Re: “An environmental position of weakness”, St. Catharines Standard editorial, Dec.13, 2007

The Standard writes: “Canada needs hard aggressive emission reduction targets in place now, with a comprehensive, viable strategy to achieve those goals.”

Sun Media (Dec.11, 2007) quoted Dalton McGuinty spewing similar chestnuts: “To my way of thinking…we need some real reductions to the greenhouse gas emissions”....“The Canadian government is standing in the way of progress in climate change, Premier McGuinty says.

Really? This is from the premier whose Liberals were abject failures in the greenhouse gas reduction department, despite being in a government majority for four years?

Does the Standard not recall when the federal government broached the subject of hard caps by introducing a California-type emission standard?

The Liberals gave the auto-sector millions to build gas-guzzlers, which couldn't be sold in Ontario if we enacted California emission standards. With typical Liberal hypocrisy, McGuinty said he "will not abide in any effort on the part of the national government to unduly impose greenhouse gas emission reductions on the province of Ontario at the expense of our auto sector." (Vancouver Province, Oct. 10, 2006) So exactly who’s standing in the way?

Look at that - a Liberal premier afraid of Kyoto hardcaps, while federal Liberals and newspaper editorialists – and the same Liberal premier - demand hardcaps from Harper. Precious stuff.

Dwight Duncan as energy minister wouldn’t even put scrubbers on his coal-plants, you know, the ones McGuinty promised to close ‘come hell or high water’? McGuinty, who once bragged (really): "Clean air in Ontario...that's our job" (Toronto Star, Oct.5, 2006), seems oblivious to the fact that those plants have been chugging away for the last four going on five years, under hypocrite McGuinty’s complete control! No one else’s! If Dalton wants to implement an environmental strategy, then why doesn’t he start in his own backyard??

McGuinty used to bluster that Ontario should take a leadership role - so what is he waiting for? Playing politics (as is the Standard’s editorial) by deflecting the responsibility from where it belongs: on the current Liberal provincial government?

It’s funny how the Standard writes: “Once Canada is proactively reducing its emissions in a meaningful way, then we can start throwing our demands to the rest of the world’s big emitters.” But, in reality (as opposed to Liberal rhetoric-land), McGuinty himself wouldn’t – as he has demonstrated – attempt the same even in regards to Ontario vs. the other provinces within Canada, let alone other competitive jurisdictions in the States!

In 2002, Premier Ernie Eves responsibly asked, without receiving answers, the questions posed in the Standard’s editorial of Jean Chretien, who was pushing his already-stillborn Kyoto swan-song at all costs.

In lockstep with the federal Grits, St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley made a lot of noise in 2002 as Ontario’s Kyoto cheerleader, yet provided no details from Chretien. Bradley at the time dismissed Kyoto’s economic concerns, just as he ridiculously dismissed Kyoto skeptics (Brock Press) as “rogue scientists”.

Liberal unionist Buzz Hargrove (who once said "We are supportive of Kyoto. It's good for the country", National Post, Feb.26, 2005) suddenly realized that the "insanity" of the environmental movement is now the biggest threat to Canadian automotive jobs. (National Post, Apr.14, 2007)

Exactly who’s 'insanity' might that be?

What was Hargrove thinking in 2002, when he bought that old 1997 Kyoto Protocol clunker from slick-talkin' snake-oil salesman Chretien at the Liberal dealership? Though Buzz insists he's against offshore imports, he eagerly bought this Liberal lemon.

When Hargrove said "I've got a message for the politicians: stop playing politics with the environment," (National Post, Apr.14, 2007) he should explain why he campaigns for the Liberal politicians who did nothing but play games with the environment.

Hargrove said that honouring our Kyoto commitments would be "suicidal for our economy...you'd almost have to shut down every major industry in the country." (Windsor Star, Feb.24, 2007)

WHAT?!

Hargrove said: "We stand to lose 150,000 jobs in our auto industry if the insanity of this environmental movement is allowed to continue." (St.Catharines Standard, Apr.14, 2007)

WHAT?!

150,000 jobs lost to Kyoto? Did Hargrove’s Liberal colleague, Jim Bradley hear that? Bradley claimed dismissively that the costs of implementing Kyoto would NOT BE DIRE!

It may be true that Canada may have “an environmental policy of weakness”, but your editorial’s bias is showing: I’d rather not have ‘an environmental policy of hypocrisy’, like the sham demonstrated by Stephane Dion and Dalton McGuinty.

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The Standard’s editorial cartoon Dec.13, 2007, showing a man (supposedly Baird) sitting at a desk with the word ‘NADA’ on it was really funny: that’s what Jim Bradley, the transport minister, provided Niagara from today’s hundred-million-dollar GO Transit announcement – NADA.