(Liberal Party winner) Canada‘s Dion says he‘ll honor Kyoto

[Robbien]

By ROB GILLIES, Associated Press Writer 10 minutes ago

TORONTO - The new leader of Canada‘s Liberal Party pledged Sunday to honor the country‘s commitment to the Kyoto protocol if he unseats Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper in an election expected next year.

Dion, who was environment minister under former Prime Minister Paul Martin , is a strong supporter of the Kyoto Protocol — even naming his dog Kyoto. Dion said he would work to make Alberta‘s massive oil sands projects — a growing source of the emissions — more environmentally friendly.
. . .

Dion was a surprise winner in Saturday‘s party election. The academic-turned-politician won nearly 55 percent in the fourth round of balloting after several of the losing candidates in previous rounds threw their support behind him.

. . .


Dion was part of the team of Liberals under former Prime Minister Jean Chretien who opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and turned down Washington‘s request to join. He also has attacked Harper for "blindly" committing Canadian Forces to Afghanistan until 2009. Some 2,300 Canadian troops are helping other NATO forces fight the Taliban in Afghanistan‘s south.


http://www.onelocalnews.com/prescottherald/ViewArticle.aspx?id=31558&source=2


:thumbsup: Canada

[goforit]

1. progress

[applegrove]

2. He's on "cross country check-up" right now.

[CHIMO]

7. Rebroadcast Below

He doesn't speak about Kyoto. The interview and questions cover his win and Canadian politics. His section on the program is about 50 minutes.

http://www.cbc.ca/checkup/archive/2006/061203CC.ram
His portion starts at 10:20

http://www.cbc.ca/checkup/archives.html

[kedrys]

3. Does he have a &$@#% first name??

I know it's not Celine... slightly sloppy reporting.

[northamericancitizen]

4. Stéphane.

[kedrys]

6. Thanks

Mercy buckets. He sounds like a stand-up kind of guy! :)

[Kolesar]

5. Like the American Doo-Wop musician who went by Dion

This is good news.

[iverglas]

8. maybe he'll eliminate child poverty by the year 2000

oh wait ...

http://www.ndp.ca/page/4507

It's a different Liberal leadership contender, but it's the same point:

Equally astonishing Mr. Rae says in his book “children living in poverty are a challenge to our conscience and to our future.” Having written this, it boggles the mind why he would today line up with a party who, in 1989 voted to eliminate child poverty by 2000, but allowed it to increase to the point where 1.2 million children were still living in poverty by the time the Liberals were defeated in 2006: a number that has risen by 20% over the past decade.

-- and that candidate said it himself:

... the Liberal Party he used to call “smug” and “a four- or five-headed monster that does one thing when in opposition and another thing in government.”

-- or, as anybody who has paid attention knows, and as was repeated in this forum by another Canadian last week: campaigns from the left, governs from the right.

The fact that Liberals continue to get elected in Canada is a tribute to the ability of people to allow themselves to be deluded, and to delude themselves. And, of course, to die and be replaced by new suckers.


By the way, I'm sure Dion didn't say he'd honor Kyoto. His English isn't perfect, but I'd expect him to know that it's spelled "honour". ;)

[Alexander]

9. So what do you propose? Re-electing Harper? Voting NDP?

I think Dion's the best candidate with a realistic shot of winning, and from what I've heard seems to be quite liberal compared with Chretien and Martin.

[iverglas]

10. uh ... I not only propose voting NDP

I vote NDP. I belong to the NDP. (Up here, you have to buy a party card in order to do things like vote at nominating meetings.) I have worked for NDP candidates in every election at every level since 1969. I have been an NDP candidate.

from what I've heard seems to be quite liberal compared with Chretien and Martin.

I couldn't care less who's "liberal" and who's not, you see. I'm not a liberal, or a Liberal. In the present circumstances, I advocate social democracy, and vote for / belong to / work for the party whose policies are most in line with social democracy.

Dion's a clever fellow (not as clever as Ignatieff thinks he is, but cleverer than Ignatieff actually is, for instance), and seems like a pleasant fellow. I expect no more from him than I have ever expected from any Liberal: precisely as much as is necessary in order to hang onto power.

You might want to google some past Liberal campaign promises to get a feel for this. Try the GST first introduced by a Conservative government (the federal value-added sales tax, which the Liberals pledged some years ago to repeal).

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0010658

Funny thing, politics. A day after Nunziata's expulsion from the Liberal caucus, Finance Minister Paul Martin confessed in Ottawa that the Liberals had made "an honest mistake" in 1993 when they vowed to abolish the GST - a promise that senior Liberals in the party knew as early as June, 1994, it could not keep.

Dandy -- but the Liberals campaigned on this promise -- and WHY DID PEOPLE VOTE for the Liberals?

Or free trade (which the Liberals campaigned against in 1988.

http://www.histori.ca/prodev/article.do;jsessionid=D06D2C5C4307EA718739F8B8C5B16BE7.tomcat1?id=15407

Turner touched off a dramatic confrontation by accusing Mulroney of repudiating Canada’s independence: “I happen to believe that you have sold us out. I happen to believe that once you . . .”

“Mr. Turner, just one second,” Mulroney interjected. While Turner struggled to continue, Mulroney voiced his indignation: “You do not have a monopoly on patriotism and I resent … your implication that only you are a Canadian.”

Ignoring Mulroney’s reprimand and repeated interruptions, Turner found the words to tap into English Canada’s perennial fear of falling into Uncle Sam’s grasping hand. “We built a country east and west and north. We built it on an infrastructure that deliberately resisted the continental pressure of the United States. For 120 years we’ve done it. With one signature of a pen, you’ve reversed that, thrown us into the north-south influence of the United States and will reduce us, I am sure, to a colony of the United States, because when the economic levers go the political independence is sure to follow.”

Free trade is still with us ... of course, the Liberals lost that election.

Child poverty is still with us.

I have a rather strong suspicion that greenhouse gases are going to be with us for quite some time. Unless the Liberals win the next election and prove incapable of spinning yet another broken campaign promise on something that is (supposedly) of huge concern to Canadians into another win. Given that the Liberal Party is simply a giant vortex into which it sucks everything and everyone it needs in order to stay in power, and that a lot of voters don't have a clue and don't give a shit anyway, my money's on broken promises and Liberals back/still in power.

[iverglas]

11. and just btw

So what do you propose? Re-electing Harper?

Why would you ask?

Why not ask whether I propose dinner at eight? About equally relevant to what was said in my post, I'd say.

I truly have no idea what evidentiary basis there might have been for your asking me whether I proposed re-electing Harper, and why you would have asked me that in public as if there were some evidentiary basis for the question.

[ianwood]

12. certinly he will

he has a Dog name kyoto