On Monday, 200 “environmental” protesters disrupted Canada’s parliament – they wanted parliament to pass bill C-311 which was submitted by the opposition NDP and calls for a 25% reduction in Canada’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions below 1990 levels by 2020.
Jack Layton
Compared to the population of Canada, 200 is not many. Although protestors were bussed in, the turnout was small. But that did not stop NDP Leader Jack Layton from following up Thursday with a press release, announcing the NDP will use its opposition day Friday in the Commons to urge the speedy passage of the proposed law. It’s easy for him to do that because the NDP knows it never will have to implement this bill as the government and answer for the massive joblessness and economic chaos that would result.
The NDP’s call for a 25% reduction in Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels by 2020 would devastate the Canadian economy. It would cripple not just Alberta’s oil based economy but also Ontario’s auto sector, which taxpayers just spent billions of dollars bailing out — a move Layton supported.
Doing what they now advocate would put us at a huge economic disadvantage with the U.S., our largest trading partner, amounting to economic suicide. Do they live in a cave?
President Barack Obama is looking at emission reductions of 17% to 20% below 2005 levels by 2020, virtually identical to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s target of 20% below 2006 levels by 2020.
The bottom line is simple. Reducing emissions in a resource-based, big, cold, northern, sparsely-populated country such as Canada is hard.
If it was easy, the former Liberal government of 1993 to 2006 would have done it like they promised to do many times. Instead, when they lost power in 2006, the Liberals were almost 29% above the far less ambitious Kyoto accord target they ratified in 2002. This was to reduce Canada’s emissions to an average 6% below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.
Talk is cheap. Doing is hard. Doing what Layton advocates would throw countless Canadians out of work – but he does not really care, despite what he says. That’s the real world, as opposed to the fantasy world in Ottawa, where protesters run amok through parliament and the NDP calls for things it knows it never will have to do.
Tags: Canada, Politics, Public Opinion, Resources