I think this is a good, hard hitting, political advertisement:

Is it negative? Sure. Is it truthful? Absolutely, and thus it deserves to be seen.

This is the second version of the advertisement "Harper on Healthcare" which was revised after the Conservatives complained that a quotation was mis-attributed to Stephen Harper. The quote "scrap the Canada Health Act" actually belonged to one of Harper's colleagues at the right-wing National Citizens Coalition.

What the Liberals have done here is smart - rewriting the advertisement in such a way that ties Harper strongly to the NCC (deserved) and to his and his colleagues views on issues like privatizing health care (deserved). Two thumbs up and the Conservatives get the Boomerang Award of the day.

Greenpeace has put some bitingly smart advertising up in the Copenhagen airport.

[Canada] is now to climate what Japan is to whaling George Monbiot

The series (hat tip: Twitter retweet from LibArtsAndMinds) features apologetic world leaders 11 years from now. Recognize this fellow?

Click on image to see other country leaders in 2020...

In other pre-Copenhagen news this week, noted climate change activist George Monbiot in a widely read article in The Guardian labelled Canada an embarrassment. While I am deeply proud of our country, I am not blind to its failures and thus I must agree with Mr. Monbiot.

Jim Prentice, the third Conservative government environment minister in as many years, today put forward a weak retort in that same paper.

Greenpeace Canada is calling on Canadians to sign it's Kyoto-Plus petition, and is of course in high gear in the days leading up to Copenhagen. May the force be with you.

Disclaimer: I like Jim Prentice and find him to be one of the truly honourable people in politics. In this case I do not at all agree with what he is saying, but as a person of principle he is at least asserting his position and plans in a bluntly unequivocal manner. That said, if it were in my power to do so I would see his government defeated for the position they are taking on climate change. The Conservative Party, as well as the co-founding Canadian Alliance Party (and it's forerunner the Reform Party) have either been denying climate change is an issue, or attempting to block any action on the issue, since, well, forever. Unfortunately, the Liberal record on the matter is equally abysmal. Those I'm sad to say are the unvarnished non-partisan facts.