May

29

The Pander Option

May 29, 2007 |

Most troubling, though, I think the Harper Conservatives have become Mulroney-ized. Former prime minister Brian Mulroney seems to have too much influence over policy and strategy.

That’s where the current Tories’ Quebec pandering comes from, as well as their ludicrous green plan. Mulroney, who this spring was honoured as Canada’s “greenest” prime minister, is firmly convinced that middle-class voters are motivated to choose a party in a campaign by the party’s stance on the environment. lorne gunter, edmonton journal

Green hysteria in the middle class might well manifest itself in voting behaviour. After all, doing anything else would impact upon the very middle class lifestyle these folks cherish. But voting? Voting costs nothing.

The CPC is stuck with a bunch of green policies which, as Gunter points out, it does not actually believe in. And it is stuck with them because it lacks the spine and the leadership to actually lead the voters out of the green delusion.

Now, the good news is that a lot of the hysteria is abating. While the Goracle can still pack in the guilt plagued SUV driver and the media is still incapable of reporting the science rather than the spin, the chances are pretty good the green tide will recede over the summer.

Had the Tories any wit at all they would, as gas prices head towards $2.00 a litre, point out that this was actually a good thing and that to really cut those emissions - in the event the Liberal Senate passes the Kyoto compliance silliness - the Tories will be imposing an immediate $1.00 a litre carbon tax. And, for good measure, will impose the same tax on the energy equivalents (however generated) in natural gas and electricity. Call it the Liberal Party Catch Up Act and actually confront the sainted middle class with the real costs of Kyoto compliance.

Of course, the really smart move would be to convene a conference on Kyoto which featured skeptics as well as the elect. Start with Bjorn Lomborg. But the eager beavers in Finance and Energy to work costing specific measures. But put the chaps in external to the task of figuring out what we might do for people dying this week with the money we would otherwise spend on reducing carbon emissions. Invite the Premiers and the leaders of the various political parties and hammer out the cost benefits.

As if.

As Sir Humphrey would say, “That would, indeed, be courageous Prime Minister.”


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