We are the 2%…Idiot.

Sanity prevails. The wool has been removed from our eyes & we refuse to participate in the greatest fraud ever perpetrated. The groupthink vise has been shattered. Another global governance attempt has, at least for a moment, been stalled.

Hitler’s Germany, Bush playbook…you do realize several hundred people are, thanks to Twitter, laughing at you at this moment, right?

Just be glad that the Harperites are finally coming out of the closet: they have been trying to change Canada all these years without owning up to it, knowing that their policies are not Canadian policies.
But now they are beginning to come out in spite of themselves.

The emails released from the University of East Anglia reveal that the leading scientists were more interested in staying ‘On Message’ than representing the uncertainty in their measurements. So concerned that they spliced on a different data set on to their tree ring data. This is the worst kind of science imaginable. Coupled with Michael Mann’s refusal to reveal his data techniques and rational throughs the whole idea of AGW into disrepute.

No politician will state it this way as it is political suicide.

Frankly, the only thing that’s embarrassing Canada here is the idea that someone who is apparently a Canadian diplomat and Cambridge lecturer would pen an analysis of a complex issue which boils down to “Harper is like Hitler, but of course they’d love Hitler in Calgary, wouldn’t they?”. This sort of demagogic propaganda is contemptible under any circumstances, but it’s just depressing when it comes from an allegedly credentialed individual in the guise of a serious analysis. Perhaps in Mr. Hancock’s circles casually likening Harper to Hitler and associating Calgarians with Nazis is just par for the course. Perhaps in the halls of the WTO that sort of garbage is allowed to substitute for a serious analysis of the political difficulties which any Canadian government faces on this file (what exactly does Hancock seriously believe that a Liberal government would have done differently? Whatever they would have done, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have been comparing them to Hitler either way). Perhaps in the lounges at Cambridge it’s commonplace to declare that people with whom one has policy differences don’t count as actual Canadians, and are akin to Nazis to boot. Perhaps this kind of rhetoric is Mr. Hancock’s idea of “diplomacy” and perhaps he thinks that it would count as worthy of a lecture at Cambridge. Personally, I think it’s a disgrace to Canada, not to mention to reasoned argument.

Beliefs held or actions undertaken by Canadians of which you disapprove don’t cease to be Canadian simply by virtue of your disapproval of them. But apparently this obvious point is too complex for even Cambridge lecturers like Mr. Hancock.

“That “global citizen” role has just been clumsily squandered, Environment Minister Peter Kent explains, in exchange for “jobs” at home”

LOL, Ivory Tower guy thinks the (presumably plebeian) concept of “jobs” is so risible he puts the word in scare quotes. I guess employment is another un-Canadian conservative value.

I notice that Stephen Walt, author of The Israel Lobby and widely alleged to be an anti-Semite and a shoddy academic, is a contributor to CIC. Are you sure you want to be comparing Harper to Nazis when this very website your are publishing your work on also features the writings of quite possibly the most controversial alleged anti-Semite academic in America?

Great work Peter Kent. Some facts….Canada occupies 6.7% of the earth and emits 1.8% emmissions China occupies 6.5% of the earth and emits.HOLD ON EVERYONE 23.3%.

Author:

Get off your high horse on the lecturing. We’re a tiny player on the emissions stage, and it’s downright idiotic to run our own economy into the ground when the largest pollutors do nothing. Yes, when everyone is on a level playing field, let’s do our part…..but to basically go it alone without the true polluters on board is more than misguided, it’s nothing short of lunacy.

This government had the guts to admit what is blatantly obvious. Previous Liberal governments did what they’ve done for years, promised everything and delivered on nothing. No more.

You are a fool to compare the government Canada to fascist regimes of the previous century, and quite frankly, sir, I’d slap your face for the comparison if we were eye to eye.

Ooooooh…..better put on your foil hat, the “Hidden Agenda” is coming!!!!! EEEEEK!!!!

Good point, we are 30 million, and they are over a billion people. That means, person for person, we are one selfish overweight cry baby.

Canada contributes 2% of the world CO2; we are not a large polluter. To face the choice of taking all transportation off our roads to meet the Kyoto demands or pay a $14 Billion penalty is ludicrous. Why would any nation the size of Canada belong to such a movement? I applaud Steven Harper’s Gov’t for having the common sense to opt out. The world is facing a financial Armageddon and Canada has to be alert to actions that will protect it’s current envied economy. The next two years will change our world as nothing else ever has. This is no time for unreasonable games.

You should really stay in Switzerland. We don’t want you back. Thanks.

Lamenting the creation of Canadian “jobs” while shilling for the WTO in Switzerland is “un-Canadian.”

Hancock thinks that the Canadian government is “un-Canadian” because it didn’t follow Jennifer Welsh’s advice. Ridiculous. Jennifer Welsh promoted her ideas as an advisor to the Liberal Party, and Canadians have been rejecting the Liberals in ever-greater numbers ever since then. Similarly, when Hancock writes that the government “may play well in Calgary, but it plays disastrously everywhere else”, he’s obviously just blowing smoke – the Conservative vote has expanded with every single election since Jennifer Welsh was advising Paul Martin. (Incidentally, perhaps Hancock has been out of the country too long to have heard that Calgary has a much more “progressive” mayor than Toronto, but hey, insulting whole groups of people with unfounded generalizations is just what comes naturally to a world-class diplomat isn’t it?) Canadians might be different from what Hancock imagines them to be from Geneva. Of course, only an idiot could think that makes Canadians like Nazis. Ergo, Hancock is an idiot.

What does John Hancock think that the Canadian government realistically could and should have done? What does he realistically expect that a Liberal government would have done differently?

Comparing Peter Kent to Hitler is even more offensive than calling him a piece of ****. But that should not blind us to the odd attachment to Kyoto, an accord that commits Canada to economically disastrous policies while doing nothing to curb overall carbon emissions. This entire debate is very mid-90s.

I find it very sad that so many of these comments are attacking the author and supporting Harper. Stephen Harper has turned Canada into a country I am ashamed to call my home. In terms of Canada’s actions on Kyoto, I’d like to say ‘let those who are without sin cast the first stone’. Canada has no right to be pulling out of our only international agreement on climate change and lecturing other nations on its failings while our hands are still bloodied with the tar sands and some of the highest per capita emissions in the world. When we have our own, solid plan for resolving our environmental issues, then we could honourably quit Kyoto.

Ah, I see the “new” politics at play in the comments here. Look, it’s obviously not a winning ploy to bring Hitler into a conversation but unfortunately we can’t ignore all the points mentioned because of this error.

Canada does have a history of leadership on some important world issues.

While the drumbeat of “who cares about global warming or carbon emissions” is drowning out everything else at the moment it is unlikely to win out in the end. Perhaps Kyoto was not the path to take to get things under control but some type of leading by example is often necessary to get others to respond and take action.