Conservatives, Harper & Quebec

[Argus]

Citation?

Another Former Liberal Environment Minister Says Dion Opposed Kyoto

Former Liberal Environment Minister Christine Stewart has joined another former Liberal Environment Minister, David Anderson, in confirming that Liberal leader Stephane Dion was a Kyoto opponent in the Liberal cabinet. How can Dion continue to claim to be a great environmental champion, when even his former cabinet colleagues are openly admitting that Dion was no such thing?:

The Facts:

*

Stewart says the Liberal government ignored climate change and didn't act for 10 years (Northumberland Today, March 7, 2007)

*

"The Minister of Finance could never find money for Kyoto which was a terrible disappointment to me. But politics is all about politics. If health is where you're going to win the election, then people focus on health." (Northumberland Today, March 7, 2007)

*

"But, the mentality was environment is not where you're going to go." (Northumberland Today, March 7, 2007)

*

Instead, she says … it was her own Liberal government that stalled (Northumberland Today, March 7, 2007)

*

"But, once industry realized after a year that government wasn't doing anything, then they stopped," she says. (Northumberland Today, March 7, 2007)

*

She notes Stephane Dion was the federal/provincial minister at the time and he was against Kyoto. (Northumberland Today, March 7, 2007)

*

This follows former Liberal Environment Minister David Anderson's acknowledgement that Liberal Leader Stephane Dion wasn't always quite so hot about global warming, a former cabinet colleague says. (CP, February 4, 2007)

*

Anderson said Martin's eventual appointment of the more province-friendly Dion to the environment post was meant to send ``a signal things would not be as aggressive,'' (CP, February 4, 2007)

*

As Eddie Goldenberg, one of former prime minister Jean Chretien's top aides, revealed, the Liberals went ahead with the Kyoto Protocol on climate change even though they knew there was a good chance Canada wouldn't meet its goals for pollution reduction. "Nor was the government itself even ready at the time with what had to be done," he said in a speech prepared for delivery to the Canadian Club of London, Ont. "The Kyoto targets were extremely ambitious and it was very possible that short-term deadlines would at the end of the day have to be extended." (Toronto Star, February 23, 2007)

[jdobbin]

Another Former Liberal Environment Minister Says Dion Opposed Kyoto

The citation asked for was for when he was environment minister. I know about what was said before he was appointed to environment.

Paul Martin was against any spending as finance minister. That was his job.

I fully expect Dion was doing his job at the table in his post prior to being appointed to environment.

[betsy]

Harper never said involvement in Iraq was out of the question. He said Canada would be there.

If I'm not mistaken he meant we should be there in spirit...as a moral support to our neighbor and our allies.

[jdobbin]

If I'm not mistaken he meant we should be there in spirit...as a moral support to our neighbor and our allies.

That is a very generous viewpoint. At speaking functions, I clearly heard him say we should be there. He didn't hedge. He didn't fudge. He didn't say we didn't have the troops. He said Canada would be there and that we had the ability to be there. He only started revising that view in 2005 when things didn't look so good.

Chretien did say in 2003 that we supported our allies. We just declined to participate. I have shown the link here over and over. If Harper's view was similar to Chretien's all along, why not support it? Why go to the Wall Street Journal and indicate that only reason Canada wasn't going was because of the Liberal government?