BEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN IN THE POST
I have highlighted my favourite line.
"John Moore
National Post
Doing nothing is always cheap
------------------------------------------------------------------
You've got to admire Environment Minister John Baird. He has mastered the ability to suck, blow and make raspberry noises all at the same time. In his latest blustery outing last week, Baird once again tried to distract Canadians from 15 months of Conservative inaction on climate change by asserting that we can't fix global warming because it would cost too much.
I'm glad John and I don't own a property together because he'd probably argue against replacing the fireprone electrical system because that might threaten our annual trip to Disneyland.
In a recent column ("Listen to Baird: This wolf may be real," April 21) Andrew Coyne cited the fable of the boy who cried wolf in defence of Baird's prediction of a Kyoto-propelled economic apocalypse. "It's not crying 'wolf' if there really is a wolf," Coyne wrote. True. But in this case, Baird isn't the boy crying wolf; he's the town manager who insists controlling feral animals would be too expensive.
Baird's latest tack in his concerted effort to paralyze the global warming debate long enough for the Tories to improvise a strategy is an exercise in bad economics: Calculate the amount of CO2 emissions Canada needs to reduce and subtract that percentage from the economy. Voila: Here comes the Great Depression.
In support of Baird's mathematics, a National Post editorial ("Kyoto hypocrisy, April 23) dug up some gloomy figures from the Chretien years, levelling the usual charge of Liberal hypocrisy in the process. The thing is, tackling greenhouse gases need not be an economy wrecker.If it is, then why is the United States -- which has a better record than Canada on greenhousegas reductions-- booming?
How is it that Europe is years ahead of us on the issue and yet we don't see a preponderance of homeless tent cities strewn across the continent? It's true that change does not come without pain. But nor does it come without opportunity.
Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove says going green will deal a death blow to Canadian car manufacturing. That's a bit like complaining that the Model T is going to put stables out of business. Hey Buzz: Build cars people want to drive. Canadians aren't buying fewer cars; they're buying smaller cars, which can be just as profitable to make. Sales of fuel-efficient Nissans, Hondas and Toyotas have soared to record levels in the last year. Perhaps Buzz is upset because those cars are made in non-union shops -- but those are the breaks.
Going green doesn't mean less of everything, it means replacing existing product with new product. Someone has got to manufacture the new light bulbs, the new energy-efficient glass for houses and condo towers, and the solar panels for our roofs.If Canada invests now in the knowledge and technology of conservation, we become leaders in a sunrise industry.
Conservation puts money into the hands of average Canadians -- something you'd think Conservatives would be excited about. When consumers use less energy, government can spend fewer tax dollars building power plants and subsidizing cheap electricity.Investing in public transit also represents a gain for the economy. Someone's got to lay the track and build the subway cars.
Every single man-hour saved in gridlock is a man-hour spent in the workplace or in the home with one's family. While it's clear that Canada's current national government is mostly pre-occupied with the short-term goal of being elected to a majority, real leadership is about making hard decisions that plan for the future common good.Doing nothing is always cheap. The good news is that the Tories won't be able to continue this platespinning routine for long. The truth catches up.
Australia's Prime Minister John Howard, confronted with the country's fifth year of devastating drought, has been compelled to invoke a massive plan to preserve the nation's water resources. Suddenly, Howard is begging his country's answer to David Suzuki, Tim Flannery, for advice. John Baird is a young man.One hopes that faced with the prospect of living the last years of his life in infamy decades from now will soon convince him that playing pit bull for Stephen Harper in pursuit of short-term political gain is a deal worthy of Faust.
- John Moore is host of the drive home show on Toronto's NewsTalk 1010 CFRB. He's enjoying his life without a car quite nicely, thanks. John.moore@cfrb.com"
Cheers,
P
I have highlighted my favourite line.
"John Moore
National Post
Doing nothing is always cheap
------------------------------------------------------------------
You've got to admire Environment Minister John Baird. He has mastered the ability to suck, blow and make raspberry noises all at the same time. In his latest blustery outing last week, Baird once again tried to distract Canadians from 15 months of Conservative inaction on climate change by asserting that we can't fix global warming because it would cost too much.
I'm glad John and I don't own a property together because he'd probably argue against replacing the fireprone electrical system because that might threaten our annual trip to Disneyland.
In a recent column ("Listen to Baird: This wolf may be real," April 21) Andrew Coyne cited the fable of the boy who cried wolf in defence of Baird's prediction of a Kyoto-propelled economic apocalypse. "It's not crying 'wolf' if there really is a wolf," Coyne wrote. True. But in this case, Baird isn't the boy crying wolf; he's the town manager who insists controlling feral animals would be too expensive.
Baird's latest tack in his concerted effort to paralyze the global warming debate long enough for the Tories to improvise a strategy is an exercise in bad economics: Calculate the amount of CO2 emissions Canada needs to reduce and subtract that percentage from the economy. Voila: Here comes the Great Depression.
In support of Baird's mathematics, a National Post editorial ("Kyoto hypocrisy, April 23) dug up some gloomy figures from the Chretien years, levelling the usual charge of Liberal hypocrisy in the process. The thing is, tackling greenhouse gases need not be an economy wrecker.If it is, then why is the United States -- which has a better record than Canada on greenhousegas reductions-- booming?
How is it that Europe is years ahead of us on the issue and yet we don't see a preponderance of homeless tent cities strewn across the continent? It's true that change does not come without pain. But nor does it come without opportunity.
Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove says going green will deal a death blow to Canadian car manufacturing. That's a bit like complaining that the Model T is going to put stables out of business. Hey Buzz: Build cars people want to drive. Canadians aren't buying fewer cars; they're buying smaller cars, which can be just as profitable to make. Sales of fuel-efficient Nissans, Hondas and Toyotas have soared to record levels in the last year. Perhaps Buzz is upset because those cars are made in non-union shops -- but those are the breaks.
Going green doesn't mean less of everything, it means replacing existing product with new product. Someone has got to manufacture the new light bulbs, the new energy-efficient glass for houses and condo towers, and the solar panels for our roofs.If Canada invests now in the knowledge and technology of conservation, we become leaders in a sunrise industry.
Conservation puts money into the hands of average Canadians -- something you'd think Conservatives would be excited about. When consumers use less energy, government can spend fewer tax dollars building power plants and subsidizing cheap electricity.Investing in public transit also represents a gain for the economy. Someone's got to lay the track and build the subway cars.
Every single man-hour saved in gridlock is a man-hour spent in the workplace or in the home with one's family. While it's clear that Canada's current national government is mostly pre-occupied with the short-term goal of being elected to a majority, real leadership is about making hard decisions that plan for the future common good.Doing nothing is always cheap. The good news is that the Tories won't be able to continue this platespinning routine for long. The truth catches up.
Australia's Prime Minister John Howard, confronted with the country's fifth year of devastating drought, has been compelled to invoke a massive plan to preserve the nation's water resources. Suddenly, Howard is begging his country's answer to David Suzuki, Tim Flannery, for advice. John Baird is a young man.One hopes that faced with the prospect of living the last years of his life in infamy decades from now will soon convince him that playing pit bull for Stephen Harper in pursuit of short-term political gain is a deal worthy of Faust.
- John Moore is host of the drive home show on Toronto's NewsTalk 1010 CFRB. He's enjoying his life without a car quite nicely, thanks. John.moore@cfrb.com"
Cheers,
P
posted by Patrick at
5:40 PM
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