This morning’s Globe screamed:
Battle looms over Kyoto goals as clean-air legislation stalls
Tories halt talks after opposition parties propose amendments to bill setting firm limits on greenhouse-gas emissions
From the Star:
Clean air bill could trigger election
The opposition unites to demand Tories write Kyoto targets into act
And, just to triple-check that I wasn’t dreaming, the CBC:
Clean Air Act puts Tories in hot spot as MPs propose changes
Report says speculation is growing that bill could trigger election
Each of the reports was citing a Canadian Press story from the wee hours of the morning. After a few coffees and a Scooby Doo-like “Huh?” I started to:
(1) marvel at just how much gall it takes for the Liberals to be claiming the credit for the work in the Clean Air Act committee when it was the NDP that got the Act to committee in the first place and then was the only party to show any real interest in getting some work done while the Liberals and Conservatives held the process up with their hissy fits over the numbers of witnesses to be called and the like.
(2) think how I would love to fight an election against the hapless, environment record-lousy Liberals and the Conservative Party blues who are trying to look green by, what, mixing in yellow?
Message to the Conservatives: It’s Kyoto, stupid. Nothing less, and a lot more.
Message to the Liberals: While you’ve fiddled, since your leadership convention, the atmosphere has burned – to say nothing of the damage while you were in power dragging your feet across your much-ballyhooed Kyoto signature. Then, heckling from the side-lines, you ridiculed the NDP as we forced the bill – what you would dismiss as a working-with-the-Conservatives idea – to be examined in committee.
Jack Layton, NDP Environment Critic Nathan Cullen and the entire NDP have been on this for a long time.
It’s great to have the Opposition parties singing from some of the same song-sheets now, at long last, but if an election is triggered on this issue New Democrats will not be shuffled off to the side-lines!
