Mulroney Honoured As Canada's Greenest PM

[Teddy Ballgame]

- Canada's greatest living prime minsiter, Brian Mulroney, will on Thursday be honoured as Canada's greenest prime minister ever in accordance with the ranking of our PMs by an independent panel of the country's twelve most authoritative environmentalists. The actual deliberations and voting by the twelve person environmental jury took place more than a year ago but Mr. Mulroney was in hospital this time last year and too ill to be honoured at the dinner planned for him. Now he is feeling fine again and the gala affair will take place in Ottawa on Thursday.

- As the following Globe and Mail report reveals, Mr. Mulroney made it to the very top of the list despite the decidely left leaning political inclinations of both the editor of the environmental magazine who picked the panel of experts and the majority of the experts themselves.

- However, PM Mulroney's record in government was just too superior on environmental issues including major iniatives on acid rain, climate change and the ozone layer not to mention a leadership role with his dynamic young Minister of the Environment Jean Charest at the 1992 UN Earth Summit in Rio. In my view, his greatest environmental accomplishment was the acid rain treaty with the US which he was able to achieve by making use of his special relationship with US President Ronald Reagan when his Liberal predecessor Pierre Trudeau and his Liberal successors Chretien and Martin could - due to their disgusting display of anti-americanism for short term vote getting in Quebed and among third world immigrants - rarely even get Reagan or either Bush on the telephone let alone negotiate a treaty that the US presidents weren't really that interested in.

- It is so good to see that PM Mulroney is increasingly receiving his due as a great prime minister while he is still with us. Canadian political historians and economists - along with most people owning IQs at or abhove double digits - have for some years readily ranked Mulroney as the greatest PM in economic policy matters of the past fifty years, acknowledging the obvious benefits to Canada of his bold and courageous initiaitives in trade, taxation, productivity, fiscal and monetary policy. In regard to his visionary economic agenda, the best summary was recently penned by Peter C. Newman in his controversial book "The Secret Mulroney Tapes". Wrote Newman, "Instead of pretending that the 20th century belonged to Canada, Brian Mulroney made it possible for Canada to belong to the 21st century."

- What is most recent is that Mulroney's stellar record in non-economic issues such as on the environment, foreign and military affairs including tackling RSA on apartheid, and federal-provincial relations generally and with Quebec in particular - as well as his singular political wit, wisdom and judgement - are now being fully appreciated by those who matter most including the current PM and those around him.

- It seems that Brian truly has the Midas Touch. He is acknowledged to be the most successful former PM in history in the business sphere with boards of leading international and national corporations clamouring for his participation and advice, he is the most in demand Canadian political speaker with a $65,000 fee and unlimited requests to speak, and he is also in great demand for pro bono service on UN and other task forces and commissions.

- Even his ability as a talent scout is first rate. Several years ago, a young struggling Canadian singer was recommended to Brian as the possible main entertainer at his daughter Carolyn's wedding. Mulroney listened to the young man do a set in a small Montreal club and declared that he had a unique style and voice blending Frank Sinatra and Bobby Darin. He hired him on the spot to sing at Carolyn's wedding and recommended him to some other heavy hitters to do some lucrative society gigs. The singer's name: Micheal Buble.

- So you see, Liberal BS doesn't always baffle Conservative brains. It only looks that way if one confines one's reading to this forum. Historically, it becomes ever clearer that neither Trudeau, Turner, Chretien nor Martin were, based on their records in office, fit to shine Mulroney's shoes. The only post WWII PM of Mulroney's calibre was Lester Pearson, whose singular record in matters of social policy is a fitting counterpoint to Mulroney's record in economic policy.

- Here is the full story about Canada's greenest PM ever:

Mulroney: Blue Tory, green leader

JANE TABER

From Tuesday's Globe and Mail

OTTAWA — On Thursday, Brian Mulroney comes to Ottawa to be feted as the "greenest prime minister" in Canadian history. A Liberal Premier, the current right-of-centre Prime Minister and the editor of a left-of-centre environmental magazine -- who was brought up believing that Mr. Mulroney was a tree cutter and not a tree hugger -- will be doing the honouring.

And all this is happening at the venerable Chateau Laurier before a sold-out crowd of environmentalists and corporate leaders.

So sought-after are tickets for this Earth Week Gala Dinner that some members of the David Suzuki Foundation, who were too late in trying to buy some, will have to be squeezed in somehow.

There is room for only 308 people.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose environmental policies are still a blank page to environmentalists, will introduce Mr. Mulroney. Quebec Liberal Premier Jean Charest, a former Mulroney environment minister, is to speak and tell war stories from "Rio" (the UN's Earth Summit was held there in 1992), and Mr. Mulroney's famous son, Ben, star of CTV's eTalk Daily and Canadian Idol, will be the evening's co-host.

Mr. Mulroney will deliver a speech in which he will not only look back on his government's green legacy, but look ahead.

He will speak about the serious problem of the shrinking polar ice cap, and the growth in China and India and the role Canada can play in ensuring those countries maintain good environmental practices.

Old-time Mulroney PMOers and staffers will be at the dinner. A table costs $2,500, but MPs and public servants are being charged only $40 so they don't end up attending as any big-wig's guest.

The event is being organized by the principals of a small independent environmental magazine, Corporate Knights, which began four years ago with $1,500 and a big idea that big business can be part of the environmental solution.

"All of a sudden, what is happening to us? We're like this centre-left magazine and all of a sudden we've got all of these . . . [leaders]," Toby Heaps, the magazine's editor, said about the success of the dinner.

It's even more delicious when you know that in 1988, Mr. Heaps's mother voted for the Liberals in the free-trade election, telling her son, who was 12 at the time, that the free-trade deal would "cause trees to be cut down."

"I always associated Mulroney with a tree cutter," he said.

No longer.

"I guess [Tory] Blue can be green," Mr. Heaps said.

Two years ago, Mr. Heaps, who had been in the United States working on Ralph Nader's presidential campaign (one of his jobs was to canvass at a Wal-Mart in Casper, Wyo.), returned to Canada and came up with the idea of polling environmentalists as to who was the greenest prime minister in Canadian history.

He asked 12 prominent green Canadians -- people such as the Sierra Club's Elizabeth May, Environmental Defence's Rick Smith and even former Liberal environment minister Sheila Copps -- to act as jurors who would cast ballots, explain their choices and then make recommendations about environmental policy to the current government.

Mr. Mulroney won, receiving five votes against three for former Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau.

Mr. Heaps said that once Mr. Mulroney agreed to the honour, the floodgates opened and the clamour for tickets began.

In fact, the event was to take place last year, but had to be rescheduled because Mr. Mulroney was suffering from an inflamed pancreas and was too ill to attend.

Meanwhile, this is to be a big event for Canada's environmental crowd, who say Mr. Mulroney is a very deserving honoree.

"Mulroney being the greenest PM in Canadian history is actually a widely held view in the environmental community," said Mr. Smith, noting that among many positive steps Mr. Mulroney took for the environment was to go to bat "big time" for the acid-rain agreement with the United States.

(Mr. Smith, however, nominated Sir Wilfrid Laurier for the greenest PM because he created a national commission to deal with environmental issues.)

But Ms. May nominated Mr. Mulroney: "For a lot of us in the Mulroney years, we didn't know it, but this was our Valhalla."

She said that former Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien made many environmental promises, but did not fulfill them. Mr. Mulroney, on the other hand, launched initiatives on acid rain, climate change and the ozone layer. Like Mr. Smith, she said that Mr. Mulroney made acid rain a bilateral priority with the United States.

Both environmentalists say they hope that Mr. Mulroney's environmental legacy will be followed, or even overtaken, by the Harper Conservatives.

"Of course, my hope and the hope of a lot of environmentalists who are going to be there [at the dinner], is that this new Conservative government breathes some life into the Mulroney legacy," Mr. Smith said

[geoffrey]

You mean signing Kyoto wasn't the greatest thing ever? You mean rising emissions and more water pollution isn't good?!

But... but... I thought Liberals were good for the environment??

[Biblio Bibuli]

Mr. Mulroney won, receiving five votes against three for former Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau.

Close call.

In fact, the event was to take place last year, but had to be rescheduled because Mr. Mulroney was suffering from an inflamed pancreas and was too ill to attend.

Serves him right for jumping the queue!

I hope he's all right now though.

[Cameron]

Here, Here...Greatest man on earth!

Brian, you deserve this! Thank you for building a great country that I can enjoy today.

[Black Dog]

Copyright infringement is illegal on these forums. Therefore, please do not post articles in their entirety. When posting copyrighted material, please use the quote feature to highlight the important parts of the article and provide a throughout summary for others. You must also provide sufficient credit to the author and a link to the original article in your post. If the article cannot be found online, then at the end of the post provide an appropriate cite using any of the available citing formats, MLA, APA

[uOttawaMan]

Greatest Prime Minister alive. lol.

[PocketRocket]

You mean signing Kyoto wasn't the greatest thing ever? You mean rising emissions and more water pollution isn't good?!

But... but... I thought Liberals were good for the environment??

But....but....I thought that the Kyoto accord was a farce and that global warming is a pile of B.S., so why should he have bothered???

T.Ball: Evidently millions of Canadians disagreed with your apprisal of Mulroney's "greatness", or else his party would have been voted back in.

You forgot to mention in your list of his accomplishments that he was largely, if not solely, responsible for the demise of the Progressive Conservative Party.

I do agree, however, that he is intelligent.

He had the brains to retire from the party just before the election that brought them down, and so not go on record as suffering a dismal defeat.

Unfortunately Kim Campbell, a politician with immense potential, got caught in the backlash.

Too bad. She could have had an amazing career in politics.

[Teddy Ballgame]

T.Ball: Evidently millions of Canadians disagreed with your apprisal of Mulroney's "greatness", or else his party would have been voted back in.

- Yes, PR, the Liberals managed in 1993 to ride their way back into power on the basis of the unpopularity of the GST, uncertainty about free trade, the splintering of the PC party into three parts due largely to Presto Manning's ambition to lead a nation (now he'll settle for Alberta) and Bouchard's disgust at the defeat by Liberal backroom weasels of Meech Lake and Charlottetown, the unpopularity of a government and a leader nine long years in power, an inept campaign by Ms. Campbell, and last but not least the most flagrant pack of political lies and promises ever put in writing in this country called The Red Book of 1993.

- Now, if you ask me whether I am more impressed with the sober hindsight of today's leading Canadian political historians and economists in evaluating and ranking Mulroney than I am with the visceral and largely uninformed and manipualted and impulsive reactions of the voting masses in 1993, I think the answer should be obvious to anyone but perhaps ALLCRAP and other rabid Tory haters.

- Perhaps since you so dislike my post here about Mulroney, you should instead read the fulsome praise of him and his environmental record in a Toronto Sun column written today by that great and rabidly partisan Liberal, Sheila Copps. Sheila, you see, no longer has to lie and pretend that Mulroney wears horns, etc., etc. You, hopefully, may one day reach this same stage of maturity and enlightenment.

Good luck.

[Biblio Bibuli]

Sheila, you see, no longer has to lie and pretend that Mulroney wears horns, etc., etc. You, hopefully, may one day reach this same stage of maturity and enlightenment.

Good luck.

The newspapers says he beat out Pierre Trudeau by a small margin.

So it was the former Liberal environment minister's Sheila Copps' vote that propelled Mulroney to victory, you say? Hmm ... I didn't know this.

You know, she should shake hands with Joe Clark, for he too voted for the opposition out of sheer bitterness.

[Teddy Ballgame]

- Here is a summary of Mulroney's environmmental record:

- Although the twelve environmetalists were politically firmly in the left wing liberal camp, a surprising five of the twelve or 42% chose Brian Mulroney as Canada's greatest environmental PM ever while the usual darling of the left-lib set Pierre Trudeau trailed with three or 25% of the votes and nobody else got more than two votes out of the twelve total.

- There is nothing surprising about a conservative wanting to conserve, in this case Conservative leader Mulroney wanting to conserve our planet and its resources. Here are aspects of his sterling environmental record beywee 1984 and 1993:

- At the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, Mulroney was the first leader to sign the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which led to the Kyoto Protocol.

- He was first to sign the UN Biodiversity Convention intended to slow the extinction of species.

- During Mulroney's era Canada hosted a conference which led to the Montreal Protocol to protect the ozone layer, perhaps the greatest success of international law in the environmental domain.

- He placed acid rain at the top of the Canada-U.S. agenda and negotiated a landmark acid-rain treaty which sharply reduced sulphur emissions in eastern North America.

- He launched the $3 billion Green Plan which gave a major push to environmental research and provided extensive ecological data that remains widely used over a decade later.

- The National Round Table on Environment and the Economy and the Winnipeg-based International Institute for Sustainable Development are both creations of the Mulroney era.

BTW --- While it is understood that both Chretien and Martin talked a good game environmentally, their actual follow through and performance was strictly (pardon the expression) smoke and mirrors. For example, despite piously and hypocritically lecturing the US for not commiting to the Kyoto Accord, the Liberal leaders actually failed to develop any kind of even remotely workable plan to impliment Kyoto and managed to blow billions of bucks while not just failing to achieve BUT FALLING FARTHER THAN EVER BEHIND the Kyoto air pollution reduction targets. Meanwhile, the US - always interested more in doing than in talking - went quietly ahead on its own and performed twice as well as Canada with air pollution increases of 13% in the past seven years versus Canadian increases of 24%.

[Cameron]

Ted, as much as I agree with you and would be willing to live in Mulroney's basement and clean out his grease trap...do you have a source for the above quotes?

[Teddy Ballgame]

Ted, as much as I agree with you and would be willing to live in Mulroney's basement and clean out his grease trap...do you have a source for the above quotes?

- C - I condensed the material from a lengthy report on my Rogers.Yahoo newspage this evening by the folks who awarded Mulroney this honor but now it has been superceded by other news items so, sorry, I can't find or cite it now. But it was there and Mulroney was given the credit for these achievements by twelve experts who frankly would have preferred to give the credit to the usual useless Liberal windbags like Chretien or Martin. As well, I would remind you that even former Liberal Environment Minister Sheial Copps wrote a fulsome tribute to Mulroney the environmentalist in today's Toronto Sun and I've copied that column here.

PS. I don't think you'll be needed to live in Mulroney's basement cleaning out his grease trap. I hear he has engaged Liberal stalwart Big Al "Now There's really Something Rotten In The State of Denmark" Gagliano because he needs work to supplement his MP's pension but like so many of Chretien's cretins he is basically unemployable and because nobody knows more about grease and how to apply it than Big Al.

[Teddy Ballgame]

- C - I looked again a bit farther back and I found the source I quoted in my earlier post. Here, for your convenience, are salient parts of the news item:

Primary Navigation

HomeU.S.BusinessWorldEntertainmentSportsTechPoliticsScienceHealthTravelMost Popular

Secondary Navigation

Middle East Europe Latin America Africa Asia Canada Australia/Antarctica Kevin Sites Search: All News & Blogs Yahoo! News Only News Photos Video/Audio Advanced

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celebration of Mulroney's green feats could prove awkward for Harper DENNIS BUECKERT

Wed Apr 19, 6:38 PM ET

OTTAWA (CP) - A gala celebrating former prime minister Brian Mulroney's environmental accomplishments risks creating some awkward moments for Thursday's guest of honour: Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Organizers are unabashed in describing the Mulroney tribute as a reminder to Harper, who has omitted the environment from his list of priorities. Mulroney was named Canada's greenest prime minister in a vote last year.

"The most notable thing about the present Conservative environment policy is its almost total absence," said Toby Heaps, editor of Corporate Knights magazine, which organized the vote.

"When you have a blank piece of paper you can write whatever you want and there's still lots of potential for something good to be written."

Mulroney was too ill to attend the award ceremony in Toronto last year. On hearing of Mulroney's recovery, Elizabeth May of the Sierra Club suggested another ceremony in Ottawa and it has turned out to be a hot social event.

But the event comes amid great uncertainty about the Conservatives' intentions on the Kyoto Protocol and on many other issues.

"We've got this very large looming threat of what is the Harper government going to do," said May.

"The noises are not encouraging. They can still pull it out, they can still emerge the way Mulroney did in some ways and surprise people, but right now all the indicators are ominous."

Mulroney seemed to genuinely understand environmental issues, said May.

At the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, she noted, Mulroney was the first leader to sign the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which led to the Kyoto Protocol.

He was first to sign the UN Biodiversity Convention intended to slow the extinction of species.

During Mulroney's era Canada hosted a conference which led to the Montreal Protocol to protect the ozone layer, perhaps the greatest success of international law in the environmental domain.

He placed acid rain at the top of the Canada-U.S. agenda and negotiated a landmark acid-rain treaty which sharply reduced sulphur emissions in eastern North America.

He launched the $3 billion Green Plan which gave a major push to environmental research and provided extensive ecological data that remains widely used over a decade later.

The National Round Table on Environment and the Economy and the Winnipeg-based International Institute for Sustainable Development are both creations of the Mulroney era.

Harper's record so far is one of cutting programs rather than proposing new ideas.

Last week, Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn announced he was axing 15 climate programs deemed ineffective, while promising to proceed with a "made-in-Canada" clean air plan.

Despite frequent references to the "made-in-Canada" plan there has been no hint of what it may contain.

Dale Marshall of the David Suzuki Foundation said he hopes the event will challenge Harper to improve his green credentials. He says environmental issues cut across ideologies.

"There is nothing contradictory about a Conservative being a good environmentalist."

[Biblio Bibuli]

- Notwithstanding the usual delusional and cracked pot comments by Bibblio Bibuli posted above, Sheila Copps was NOT one of Canada's twelve leading environmental experts who were each given a ballot to vote on the greenest PM in Canadian history.

WANNA BET!!!

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/200...18/1539100.html

[geoffrey]

You mean signing Kyoto wasn't the greatest thing ever? You mean rising emissions and more water pollution isn't good?!

But... but... I thought Liberals were good for the environment??

But....but....I thought that the Kyoto accord was a farce and that global warming is a pile of B.S., so why should he have bothered???

It is a farce. That's why its Mulroney being honoured, who actually made a positive difference, instead of Martin/Chretien, who just made everything considerably worse.

Face it, Kyoto has done far more harm in Canada than good, gives us this false impression our government is doing something. Mulroney's pro-business environmentalism actually changed the environment for the better.

[Teddy Ballgame]

It is a farce. That's why its Mulroney being honoured, who actually made a positive difference, instead of Martin/Chretien, who just made everything considerably worse.

Face it, Kyoto has done far more harm in Canada than good, gives us this false impression our government is doing something. Mulroney's pro-business environmentalism actually changed the environment for the better.

- G - You and I are certainly on the same page on this issue. So is Globe and Mail columnist Eric Reguly who wrote an excellent column today on the Liberal fraud known as our Kyoto commitment. Here are a few points from Reguly's column:

- If you want to laugh, pick up the May edition of Vanity Fair, the magazine's first "green issue." Canada (along with Toronto Mayor David Miller) are slathered with kudos in the 30-page eco-champions section. "Our neighbours to the north certainly seem to get it: Canada ratified the Kyoto Protocol . . ." the editors wrote.

- The implication is that Canada out-greens the United States, where Kyoto is a dirty word. Vanity Fair believes Canada has taken the high ground. The trouble is, holier-than-thou Canadians do, too. Nothing could be further from the truth.

- While Canada is a card-carrying Kyoto member (merci, Jean Chrétien), the country's greenhouse gas emissions, largely carbon dioxide, are so far above the target that "Kyoto" and "Canada" don't belong in the same paragraph. Canada's Kyoto gap -- the difference between actual yearly emissions and the target emissions in the protocol's first reporting period, 2008 to 2012 -- was 177 million tonnes in 2003, when the last official figure was released. That was about 30 per cent higher than the target.

- The current gap is undoubtedly higher, thanks in large part to northern Alberta's oil sands. The area, where a massively energy-intensive extraction and refining process is used to convert tarry guck called bitumen into synthetic crude, has emerged as one of the planet's single-biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions.

- Aldyen Donnelly, president of the Greenhouse Emissions Management Consortium (Gemco), estimates Canada's gap is now about 210 million tonnes. Unless miracle energy conservation technologies are found, national emissions output will soar as oil sands production more than doubles over the next decade. The point is, Canada hasn't got the slightest chance of meeting the Kyoto targets unless it turns the oil sands into a nature preserve. The odds of that happening are about the same as Vanity Fair holding its Oscar party in Fort McMurray.

- What were the Chrétien Liberals thinking when they joined the Kyoto club? They were either incompetent and horrendously underestimated the difficulty in meeting the emissions target. Or the cynical brutes never had any intention of complying in the first place (Ms. Donnelly's belief).

- The latter theory is credible. Mr. Chrétien wanted a PR win and got one with Kyoto. Kyoto is popular in Ontario and Quebec. It is supported by the NDP and the Bloc Québécois. More Canadians than not are proud that Canada is in Kyoto. Plus it gives them another reason to hate George W. Bush (never mind that Bill Clinton was the first president to step off the Kyoto bandwagon).

You know, Geoffrey, anyone who would be stupid enough to vote Liberal in 1997, 2000, 2004 and 2006 after being lied to IN WRITING and manipulated and conned in breathtaking fashion during and after the 1993 campaign would be stupid enough to actually believe and be impressed by Chretien's cynical Kyoto con as well. Judging from the topics here, we have quite a few such "useful idiots" on this board. I'm so glad neither you nor I are among them.

[Teddy Ballgame]

Brian Mulroney returns to Ottawa, feted as greenest PM in Canadian history

BRUCE CHEADLE

OTTAWA (CP) - Former prime minister Brian Mulroney basked in a green glow of admiration Thursday evening as he made his first public appearance in Ottawa since leaving office 13 years ago.

Mulroney was greeted by a standing ovation at the historic Chateau Laurier hotel by a who's who crowd of environmentalists, business executives, diplomats and politicians even before he was praised as the greenest prime minister in Canadian history.

Speaker after speaker lauded Mulroney-era legislation and initiatives to protect the environment.

Clearly enjoying a return to the limelight, Mulroney promised to be brief, adding he could only speak at length if he's "being taped," a reference to a profanity-laced tell-all book by Peter C. Newman based on their recorded telephone conversations.

Mulroney said he was honoured by the environmental award and the "endorsements" of the judges on the panel, including one who called Mulroney the "best of a bad bunch."

Canada's 18th prime minister, now 67, left office under a toxic cloud of public disdain almost 13 years ago.

How the skies have cleared.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, seated with Mulroney and his wife Mila at the head table, alluded to that stormy past earlier Thursday during a news conference in Montreal.

"At the time, I don't think there was any environmentalist who had anything good to say about Mr. Mulroney," Harper said of the back-to-back Tory majorities in the 1980s.

"Now he's regarded years later as the greenest prime minister. I believe the reason he's regarded that way is that he didn't pursue grandiose schemes and unworkable arrangements and the kind of problem we got into on Kyoto (greenhouse gas protocol). Instead, he decided to make real progress, concrete progress, on particular issues."

It was a somewhat partisan prelude to a surprisingly non-partisan event.

Corporate Knights, a left-leaning magazine that likes to reward good corporate environmental citizenship in the hopes of spurring copycats, set the ball in motion last summer.

The magazine commissioned a 12-member panel comprised mostly of environmentalists - former Liberal cabinet minister Sheila Copps and historian Desmond Morton were the exceptions - and they wound up selecting Mulroney as Canada's greenest PM. Mulroney got the nod from five of 12 panellists, eclipsing Pierre Trudeau's three votes.

Quebec Premier Jean Charest, a onetime Mulroney environment minister, drew a hearty laugh when he said he told his wife that Harper would also be at the event and she responded, "Again?"

Charest and Harper have had several one-on-one sessions since the January election.

Mulroney's brush with death last year due to a severe attack of pancreatitis prevented the awards dinner from taking place until this spring. In the interim, a Conservative government was elected for the first time since the remnants of Mulroney's party were routed in 1993.

The gala proved to be the hottest ticket in town.

Corporate giants such as SunLife and Enbridge snapped up all the $2,500 tables in four days, leaving many political insiders scrambling for one of the scarce 308 seats. The waiting list late Thursday afternoon had reached 300.

Pierre Karl Peladeau, the head of media giant Quebecor World, was there, as was U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins.

Old Liberal stalwarts of the Jean Chretien era were on hand, as was Ontario MPP Gerard Kennedy, who plans to seek the federal Liberal leadership.

Derek Burney, Mulroney's former ambassador to the United States, was to attend along with Senator Marjory LeBreton, a key player in both the Mulroney and now Harper governments.

Despite Harper's bold words, the Mulroney speech falls into something of an environmental policy vacuum in Ottawa.

Harper has promised a "made-in-Canada" approach to the global climate change treaty, yet senior bureaucrats say the government appears to be genuinely non-plussed about how to proceed.

"Our government is examining all of the options," Harper said in Montreal.

"But to solve environmental problems, it's necessary in this continent and this economy to have the participation of the United States, or our efforts will not have many results."

That's a fact of life that environmental groups now say Mulroney recognized, and to some degree overcame, during his tempestuous time in office.

PS. I watched the event live on CPAC and Mulroney was in vintage form, mixing an appealing and humorous dose of self deprecation with fascinating insider accounts of his negotiations with Reagan and Bush I and others with persuasive and pointed barbs at the two morons and charlatans Chretien and Martin who succeeded him with some very substantial food for thought in terms of the environmental challenges Canada faces in the future and how we can best deal with them.

Specifically, Mulroney identified the Northern environmental challenges including the fast melting polar ice cap, the increasing importance of the Northwest Passage and of oil and gas exploration and transmission in the Far North and the concommitant onus placed on asserting and defending our Arctic sovereignty and maintaining that environment and its living creatures and the survival of its indigenous peoples as the top environmental priorities for government.

He argued that the Canadian government could only be effective in meeting these challenges if it did three things well: set an example through its own performance in its myriad Northern operations that enabled it to occupy the moral highground rather than to be seen as hypocritical and ineffective; encourage and engage the US and, insofar as the Arctic is concerned, Russia in specific co-operative programs to tackle Arctic environmental problems and, get major industry on side through effective incentives and realistic goals and win-win types of outcomes.

After listening to the former PM's stirring 45 minute speech, it was easy both to see why he got 42% of the environmentalists' votes and why his two Liberal successors got no votes at all, not even from the one voter who worked for them.

[shoop]

Hmmm, let's look at the living PMs.

Joe Clark, John Turner, Brian Mulroney, Kim Campbell, Jean Chretien, Paul Martin and Stephen Harper.

Clark, Turner, and Campbell were in for less than a year, far too short an amount of time to have accomplished anything of substance. Same with Harper to date.

That leaves Mulroney, Chretien and Martin.

Martin? Maybe greatest living Finance Minister, but PM .... not even members of his 'board' would try and make that argument.

So you have to choose between Mulroney and Chretien.

Both left under a cloud of scandal.

Both presided over constitutional crises.

Both had positive and constructive relationships with their counter-parts in the White House the majority of the time they were in power.

Mulroney made the cuts to the civil service, signed Free Trade/NAFTA, got rid of the MST/brought in the GST and enacted changes in the regulatory environment that were necessary to set the stage for the boom times of the 90s. Chretien was smart enough to follow the Mulroney blueprint. (i.e. kept the GST and didn't abrograte NAFTA despite promises to the contrary.)

Mulroney made very positive changes to the environment. Chretien signed Kyoto, created the "one tonne challenge" and didn't do much else.

Seems like a pretty convincing case can be made for Mulroney as greatest living PM.

Greatest Prime Minister alive. lol.

[Teddy Ballgame]

Seems like a pretty convincing case can be made for Mulroney as greatest living PM.

- S - Indeed! In fact, I was being uncharacteristically circumspect in my remarks because I believe that Mulroney is not just easily our greatest living PM but one of the two greatest PMs among the 11 who have served Canada in the past fifty years. In my view, there is little question that Mulroney has been the greatest of these PMs in terms of economic policy while lester Pearson was the greatest of the bunch in terms of social policy. So I rank Mulroney and Pearson at the top of the pile and give Mulroney a slight edge because I contend that good socila policy is impossible without the good economic policy that provides the means to pay for the good social policy.

- At the other end, I rank Pierre Trudeau as the worst and most destructive of the 11 modern PMs in light of his disasterous fiscal and economic policies, his divisive and wasteful social policies and his democratically destructive Chater initiative while placing his little bum boy who got the Liberla leadership through seniority Jean Chretien at the bottom as the most obtuse, unimaginative, inarticulate, ineffectual laughing stock to hold the office of PM.

[PocketRocket]

- Perhaps since you so dislike my post here about Mulroney

Who said anything about "disliking" the post???

Your part was well-written, and there were many truths contained therein.

The only thing I really didn't like about it was comments like....

Canadian political historians and economists - along with most people owning IQs at or abhove double digits - have for some years readily ranked Mulroney as the greatest PM in economic policy matters of the past fifty years.

....the sort of sweeping "Anyone who votes (fill in the blank) is an idiot" sort of statements I've always abhorred, and have always tended to speak out against.

Your post was almost immediately followed by that of GEOFFREY, which I also addressed, which was simply a trolling post at best.

What I pointed out in addressing your post was simply a collection of more truths showing the other side of the Mulroney coin.

He was indeed a fine Prime Minister, but simply not a perfect saint that some people paint him to be.

You will also notice that in my post I did not cast any insults either at you personally, or at Conservative voters as a group.

Yet your response, although well crafted, stooped to that level with........

Sheila, you see, no longer has to lie and pretend that Mulroney wears horns, etc., etc. You, hopefully, may one day reach this same stage of maturity and enlightenment.

If we're to speak of "maturity and enlightenment", then who better shows those qualities; one who can speak his piece without casting aspersions, or one who feels the need to try belittle the intelligence of those who may disagree with him???

Just a few little things to think about.

Good luck.

Even though this comment, following hot on the heels of the immediately preceding quote as it was, was meant as yet another insult, I will accept it as a sincere wish for my future wellbeing, and respond as such; best of luck to you as well.

[Biblio Bibuli]

- Notwithstanding the usual delusional and cracked pot comments by Bibblio Bibuli posted above, Sheila Copps was NOT one of Canada's twelve leading environmental experts who were each given a ballot to vote on the greenest PM in Canadian history.

WANNA BET!!!

http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/200...18/1539100.html

Just so you know what has happened to me if I'm AWOL for an extended period.

If you go to Teddy's post from which I have quoted him, you will find that that paragraph doesn't show there.

Now it is my word against his as to whether he actually said that .... and frankly my dears, I'm very surprised that I'm still here today, talking to you. I was SURE I'd be banned by now for saying that he has said something that he didn't.

That's how he operates!

God will punnish him for that!!!

BTW - Is there even a one soul here that's willing to testify on my behalf?

Didn't think so.

[Wilber]

On Wednesday I was listening to an interview of David Suzuki on the Bill Good show, CKNW radio. He was asked what he thought about it. He said that although he wasn't asked for his opinion and he didn't know how green Mulroney was personally, he agreed with the assessment. He felt more environmental initiatives were taken during Mulroney's years in power than any other PM he could think of.

[Teddy Ballgame]

On Wednesday I was listening to an interview of David Suzuki on the Bill Good show, CKNW radio. He was asked what he thought about it. He said that although he wasn't asked for his opinion and he didn't know how green Mulroney was personally, he agreed with the assessment. He felt more environmental initiatives were taken during Mulroney's years in power than any other PM he could think of.

- W - Yes, there is little argument that Mulroney's administration not only talked about and promised and tried but actually accomplished more on the environmental front than any of our other federal governments past or present. There were 12 jurors with environmental credentials who voted on the greenest PM in our history. Almost all of them were on the left side of the political divide which meant that Mulroney was at a considerable disadvantage at the outset of the jury deliberations. Nonetheless, he received five votes, Trudeau the lefties' lovechild only managed three, and the remaining four were split among four of the other 20 Canadian PMs.

- Tellingly, none of the four PMs who succeeded Mulroney received a single vote. Most tellingly, the fiercely partisan and pro-Chretien Liberal Sheila Copps - who managed a seat on the 12 person panel because Chretien had made her his Minister of the Environment in the early 90s - couldn't bring herself to vote for her old boss. She voted for Sir John A. MacDonald who started the national parks system (Mulroney finished it with eight new national parks). I guess expecting Tequila Sheila - the leader of the infamous Rat Pack who attacked Mulroney mercilessly every day in the House - to vote for Brian was just too big a stretch. But at least she was honest enough not to vote for Chretien and his Kyoto con job.

[speaker]

on another forum there was a subject dealing with a similar award going to George Bush and at first I thought this is just absurd. Then I realized that it had been initiated on April 1st. So when I saw this one I just assumed that this was a continuation of a theme. The fact that it was serious in a way makes it even funnier.

The only american prime minister of Canada who gave us lock stock and barrel of water to the makers of the yankee dollah via the "free trade deal" is a hero of Canadian environment? some of the pastries involved in the free lunch for the jury must have been brownies.

[Biblio Bibuli]

There were 12 jurors

Hi Teddy!

This morning browsing through your posts, I found this little unpleasantry in your MacIsaac thread:

"Teddy, you'll be taking a one month vacation for the foul mouth insults you used earlier in this thread."

I am so sorry to hear that! Obviously the jury at MLW is composed of 12 angry men.

Greg then goes on to say:

"Also, this whole thread isn't worthy of discussion and will be deleted shortly."

I beg to differ!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/Pag...orce_login=true

A month is not that long, Teddy. And believe you me when I tell you that I'll be counting the days, hours, and minutes awaiting your return.

In the meantime I suggest that you take this oportunity take a littlr R&R. Here's a good tune to relax to:

http://genoakeawe.com/frameset.performances.htm

Au revoir!