The Energizer Baird; My Blahg

My Blahg by Robert McClelland

Baird is deceiving the UN too

Environment minister John Baird is not only deceiving Canadians:

Canada has not said whether it will breach the U.N.-sponsored Kyoto Protocol even though the country's new climate change plan is weaker than its goals under the international pact, the U.N. climate chief said on Tuesday.

This is what conservatives mean when they say they are accepting the principles of Kyoto; we like Kyoto, but we're not saying that we're going to comply or not. Trust us, we're good Canadians.

Canada is way over target and its plans to extract oil from sands in northern Alberta, a highly energy intensive process, could deflect it further.

Oil is good; I don't see an issue here.

The Conservative government last week laid out new plans on tackling climate change which appeared to confirm it felt Kyoto was unachievable.

"It's not entirely clear to me how the two (sets of targets) relate to each other," U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said in a telephone interview.

"If a country signs an international agreement then I assume they stand by that agreement until they tell me otherwise."

Sure, it would be fair to assume that. But not with the current neo-con administration, Yvo!

"They've not told us they intend to back away from Kyoto."

No, and they won't either. Their deceiving inactions are not limited to the exposure of the Canadian public. Afghan detainees (those terrorists) have suffered from Conservative inaction, and it look like the United Nations (those idiots) are next.

Reuters: U.N. says Canada silent over Kyoto targets

CBC website gets the facts wrong on the "emission" plan.

The CBC explains the latest Conservative environment scheme as follows (from the CBC website)

Companies [...] will be required to cut back their greenhouse gas emissions by 18 per cent by 2010. After that, they have to reduce amounts by two per cent a year.

True or false?

False

Fact: The current so-called "emission" plan requires polluters to cut back on "carbon intensity", not on "greenhouse gas emissions".

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

Update - Other media repeating the deceiving message:
Calgary Herald

So the Conservatives threw out a target -- [...] 18 per cent emissions cut [...] -- and called it their best compromise.

Canada's New Government: Job losses only a crisis when WE call it a crisis

Good post by Robert McClelland:

SELECTIVE CONCERN ON JOB LOSSES

I see John Baird has all the rubes worked into a high state of dudgeon because he claims that if Canada tries to meet its Kyoto targets 275,000 Canadians might lose their jobs.

Well if that’s the case I wonder what state they’re in knowing that Canada’s manufacturing sector has shed 250,000 jobs over the past 5 years. What’s that? They aren’t concerned about those lost jobs.

“On March 28, along with the leaders of Canada’s largest private sector unions, I met with the Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Industry and the Minister of Labour about the fact that since November 2002, Canadians have suffered a net loss of over 250,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector. They acknowledged that they see the same numbers that we see but they did not see them as a crisis.”

So for the record, the Conservative position on job losses is:
275,000 hypothetical lost jobs = economic armageddon.
250,000 actual lost jobs = stop your bitchin.

Conservatives and Big Oil - dealings behind closed doors

Do you want to know the connections between the Conservatives and Big Oil? Too bad; meetings are behind closed doors.

A handful of industry chief executives met behind closed doors with Environment Minister John Baird, Indian and Northern Affairs Minister Jim Prentice and Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn to discuss the Conservative government’s new green agenda.

“As [Mr. Baird] reiterated, the Prime Minister wants to do this in a way that doesn’t harm the economy, and that recognizes that capital stock and technology take some time to bring into place,” said Pierre Alvarez, president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

The two-hour meeting was part of the government’s consultations ahead of firming up policy to deal with Canada’s growing greenhouse gas emissions. The three ministers held a series of private meetings in Calgary, where there’s rising anxiety about how aggressive the government will get to boost its environmental credentials at the expense of oilpatch growth plans, particularly in the oilsands.

But why behind closed doors? What's there to hide?

Mr. Baird described the meeting as “a good exchange of ideas. We learned more about some of the challenges, some of the opportunities.”

Yeah, it's better not to confuse the people with "exchanges of good ideas". Transparency, Conservative style.

Read the full article: Royal Dutch Shell PLC

Also at the meeting: Tim Hearn, CEO of Imperial Oil Ltd.; Clive Mather, CEO of Shell Canada Ltd.; Randy Eresman, CEO of En Cana Corp.; Hal Kvisley, CEO of Trans Canada Corp.; Steve Snyder, CEO of Trans Alta Corp.

Minister John Baird on YouTube: he doesn't seem to know the essential basics about the environment portfolio

Ask people on the street who John Baird is, and probably, many still won't know. But things could be worse, and when it comes to the current Conservatives, they almost always are.

Ask John Baird what the difference is between carbon tax and carbon trading, and he won't have the answer.
(he could just look here and here)

Ask John Baird which countries have a carbon tax today, and he won't have the answer.
(he could just look here)

Ask John Baird how much his department has spend the past year, and he won't know.

Meet John Baird, the "all new" Conservative Minister of Environment for the New (so-called) Government. And be amazed:



John Baird on YouTube