"Reform-a-Tory" Track Record on Climate Threat
From the study in contrasts department, over the years the Reform Party under Preston Manning, then the Canadian Alliance under Stockwell Day and then Stephen Harper, continually attacked the government of the day for its support of the Kyoto treaty.
There is hard data written on pieces of paper collected by scientists that without any doubt prove that the global climate has not warmed since 1940. The data is there and is indisputable.David Chatters, MP Athabasca – Reform Party, echoing the typical “dispute the science” attack used by the Reform and then Canadian Alliance parties [2]
Maybe one of those “scientists” is former Reform MP Jim Pankiw?
Last winter in my constituency of SaskatoonâHumboldt we had record cold temperatures. For as long as they have kept records, it was never colder. That in itself is no evidence that the world temperature is not increasing but on the other hand it would tend to suggest that maybe it is not.Jim Pankiw, MP Humbolt – Reform [2]
Or perhaps it was Canadian Alliance MP Roy Bailey:
Mr. Speaker, coming from Saskatchewan, where we have scored the coldest place on earth, not just in Canada, I must admit that I have not heard very much about global warming, even when I phoned my wife this morning for the wind chill factor.Roy Bailey, MP Souris-Moose Mountain, Conservative Party of Canada [3]
In contrast, in the 90’s the “other” conservative party, the Progressive Conservative Party, wanted government to make meaningful progress on climate change, and did not dispute the science:
“Global warming is a genuine threat”John Herron, Environment critic, Progressive Conservative Party of Canada [1]
I actually understand why the Reform Party does not understand the science beyond this and it does not believe in global warming. I think it is because it still lives in the ice age… As a northern and a marine nation we must be resolute in addressing this very serious problem. Global warming from a Canadian perspective is indeed a national problem.John Herron, Environment critic, Progressive Conservative Party of Canada [2], commenting on the Reform Party, the party of Stephen Harper and folks like Rona Ambrose
In that same debate you’ll find lengthy arguments by Reform Party leader Preston Manning, which amount to a dismissal of climate change science. You’ll find also a passionate plea for meaningful action from then PC party leader Jean Charest, who is now Premier of Quebec.
The only party, the only group of ideologues, that have ever and always opposed Kyoto, that have ever and always opposed the science behind climate change, and have ever and always opposed meaningful action on global warming, is the Reform Party, a party which Stephen Harper helped create, which morphed into the Canadian Alliance, a party which Stephen Harper led, which then managed what amounts to a take over of the Progressive Conservative Party leaving out the progressive in both name and spirit.
Current environment Minister Rona Ambrose, who hails from the Canadian Alliance / Reform side of the Conservative Party, has anti-environmentalism buried within her very genes. The institutional hatred towards Kyoto is absolutely systemic within that side of the “conservative family”, and Canadians have been witnessing which side of the family is really in control of policy within the new party and “Canada’s New Government”.
References:
[1] A Tory Kyoto Protocol Primer
[2] Hansard, Debate on Climate Change, held 10 days in advance of the signing of the Kyoto Protocol treaty