Since an election will probbably be called on the environment, I believe it is very important to get the facts straight.

Thanks to Dipper Chick for the quotes:

March 22, 2007 – Green party leader Elisabeth May says “Bill C-30 – the so-called Clean Air Act – was dead on arrival at its first reading last year. . . Ongoing attempts to breathe life into the corpse are a waste of time. . . It’s time for MPs to bring down the curtain on the C-30 sideshow and get to work on climate change strategies that will drive progress towards the Kyoto targets.”
(Green Party Press Release)

February 5, 2007 - Michael Ignatieff accuses the NDP of being “engaged in a ‘double game’ by criticizing the Conservatives while working with them to rewrite the government’s legislation.”

Ignatieff says: “There’s something nauseating going on which Canadians have to notice . . . Layton gets up and pretends to oppose a government that he’s propping up. He’s got to decide what the hell he’s doing here . . . I think (propping up the Tories) is substantially reducing NDP support . . . The problem with the strategy is in Layton’s base. Any NDP voter looking at this is thinking, `Why are these guys letting the Harper government off the hook on the environment?” (Toronto Star)

And the scariest quote of all:

December 20, 2006 – Newly elected Liberal leader Stephane Dion says “Mr. Layton decided to play the game . . . I told him, at this stage I will play the game, too. (But) I will denounce it; I will denounce it at the same time . . . If I’m able to become the prime minister next spring, I will not continue this fake gesture.” (Toronto Star)

So if the NDP was not in the House of Commons and Green Party led by Elizabeth May was, the rewriting of the Clean Air Act would have never taken place. Elizabeth May admits that she didn’t want to have anything to do with the Clean Air Act. And the Liberals are just the same. Liberals think you can’t oppose legislation and try to fix it. How is it productive to just oppose everything? And the scariest thing of all is that Dion seems to think of this as a game, and he admitted to playing along. But at the end he states he will not continue playing this game if he is in power. Does that mean this legislation goes down the toilet, just because Liberal isn’t stamped on it?

It seems the only objective of the other parties is to get Harper out of power. While the NDP does have this as an objective, it realizes reality, and will work to get things done. The committee to amend the Clean Air Act was never about propping up the Conservatives, it was about getting something done for the environment.

I will be seeing Nathan Cullen tonight at an event in Calgary, I will be sure to congratulate him.

Don’t let them tell you it can’t be done.