repackaging

Cap.
If you must mention it, at least admit that the liberal programs were lifted from the NDP!
Now they are resurrected (to some extent) by our puppet-leader who governs by opinion polls.

Cappy, you are a scream!

Cappy, everything Herr Harper has done as a Born Again Evironmentalist was simply reinstating programmes that existed under the previous government. It will just cost more since the valuable and experienced people who administered the last programmes are now gone. So much for fiscal responsibility.

Face facts: Herr Harper was following the environmental policies (or lack thereof) of his mentor, Bu$h. For that reason we got a weak and inexperienced minister who was totally out of her league.

Alive, lifting programmes from the NDP is rather difficult since they have never even been remotely close to forming a government.

The first and best programme of the type as the Powersmart Programme which was founded by BC Hydro when Vander Zalm was premier. I got my start in the construction business with it. Oddly, it was one of the first cancellations of of the NDP government in 1991.

Cappy, the liberals are 4 points above Herr Harper at this point. Since Herr Harper is such a good leader, how would you explain this?

Utility companies should finance clean energy, not feds.

Upgrading insulation is usually the smartest first step in a clean energy approach. With a heavily-insulated building, it becomes economically feasible to provide heat with small, 100% clean solar/geothermal-seasonal-storage systems such as those currently used in a residential development in Okotoks, Alberta, the Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa and numerous other locations.

Here are a few links to pictures showing how this type of system works:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/living-green/gfx/simple-district-loop.jpg
http://kanata-forum.ca/uoit-storage.jpg
http://www.greenershelter.com/images/GeoSolar3.jpg

Instead of partially reviving the Liberals' EnerGuide program for upgrading insulation, it would be better to provide utility companies with strong incentives to offer long-term financing of both insulation and solar/geothermal systems. Payments can be integrated with utility bills in such a way that there is no upfront cost for the building owner and overall monthly bills including payments on the solar/geothermal system actually go down instead of up. This is a far more efficient way of doing things than setting up an entirely new federal bureaucracy to dole out money to homeowners. Utility companies already have billing systems in place. Why duplicate that?

I took advantage of BC Hydro's insulation financing option some years ago, and that worked out very well. It would be great if BC Hydro or whatever BC Gas is called nowadays could pay the upfront cost of a solar/geothermal system, amortize the costs over 25 years and integrate payments with regular utility bills so that costs are pretty much invisible for the homeowner.

When building owners finance the costs of a solar/geothermal system, the payback period can run anywhere from less than a year to up to 15 years depending on the building type. That's still a lot shorter than the payback period for a hydro dam or nuclear power station. But utility companies can get much lower interest rates than homeowners, so payback periods can be even shorter still and/or monthly payments can be much lower when a utility company does the financing.

The cost of an energy audit

Don't know if anyone's au courant on the costs of an energy audit...but, my understanding of the conman's program suggests that it's nearly a carbon copy of the Liberal one with an extra 3 - 4 hundred dollars built in to pay for a professional energy audit. Otherwise it’s a complete wash.

Guess energy consultants had the 'ear' of someone.

No reform here: Sorry Cappy - just another way, like the $100 pander to stay at home moms, for pee wee to do nothing and look like he's doing something.

Sad.

Real Estate Salespeople Greener Than NDP, Liberals or Socreds.

That was one of many very worthwhile things the BC NDP cancelled. The BC NDP also slashed medical research funding by about 90%.

Even though the Vander Zalm government did some excellent work with PowerSmart, they really screwed up when Zalm's finance minister Mel Couvelier introduced the property transfer tax. That has got to be one of the most environment-damaging taxes ever created since it severely punishes those who do the right thing by selling their old house and buying a new house closer to their job when they change jobs. Vander Zalm's property transfer tax forces people to commute over long distances instead of moving. The property transfer tax should be eliminated and replaced with pollution taxes as soon as possible.

I've dealt with some very decent, honest real estate sales people as well as more than a few who were lying, thieving pond scum. But either way, generally right-wing real estate sales types who help people move closer to their jobs do a lot of good for the environment. The environment is severely damaged by NDP types who want to force all of us to spend 4 hours per day commuting over long distances in dirty, polluting diesel buses and Socred or Liberal types who want us to spend 2 hours per day driving single-occupancy cars over billions of dollars worth of new bridges and freeways that are to be paid for with a property transfer tax that has in part caused the traffic congestion to begin with.

G West/Alive

Question:

If the Conservatives are merely re-packaging Liberal plans, does this not at least make them as good as the Liberals? Plus, considering how effective the Tories have been in implementing their policies - doesn't this make them better. The Liberals had a lot of plans, but they really never took action. They had plans for health care, child care, the environment - heck, they even signed Kyoto and social housing.....

Alive:

Tories are down slightly in the polls, though most analysts suggest this is more of a problem for Dion. Harper is up in most the country (especially BC, as a matter of fact) except Quebec. The Liberals are riding the coat-tails of positive media spin surrounding the convention, and some recent backlash against the environment. Harper is dealing with the environment, Afghanistan is look much better than it ever has and he is going to introduce another budget full of goodies for everyone!!

Harper will win the next election - though maybe not a majority. Dion can barely speak english, he has no charisma, is seen as a single issue candidate, has no record - Harper can atleast boast about accomplishing things. In fact, Harper can grill him on his environmental record!

Dion was a gift to the Tories. Rae had a sharp tongue and is a true politician. Ignatieff is brilliant. Dion - blaaah.

Don't get your hopes up. Though only time will tell.

Working Man: While home one

Working Man:

While home one summer I worked for a Powersmart contractor. The work was good, though repetitive, but the money was amazing: I was making almost $45/hour and it was the late 80's!

I do take issue with your use of a German form of address for Harper. He is not German, does not come from a German comunity, and we don't speak German as one of our official languages. I realise the necessity of modifying the names and titles of politicians, but when when those on the conservative side called Tommy Douglas "Comrade Douglas" they were using a word that is common in English.

Is the intent of using "Herr Harper" to somehow associate him with German art or science? Or is it a more base association between the German language and fascism? The problem is that "Herr" is simply "Mister," and when a term as common as that is used to cast political aspersions we are entering dangerous territory.

"Heil Harper" is a better choice: pretty Hitler specific and it retains the alliteration. If you hold Bush as Hitler, then we could have Reichsmarschall Harper or Gauleiter Harper. "Duce" would be a more subtle choice, or for a modern flavour we could use Harpmenbashi.

Harper's "New Canadian" government

Harper has been taking both direction and contributions from the U.S. since he decided to run for the leadership of this country. Since he refuses to say where a significant chunk of his campaign contributions came from, the Canadian public will probably never know.

He has certainly taken the lead of the Bush criminal cabal in sneaking in major policy changes before holidays etc. Besides the environmentally friendly programs that were cancelled before Easter, as mentioned in the article, Harper rammed through the neverending war in Afghanistan extension on an evening when a Stanley Cup game was being broadcast on CBC. I had to switch to Radio Canada to watch the Bush friendly commitment of troops, piles of money and contracts to procure American military equipment as it was rushed through Parliament.

I also keep hearing about how U.S. skies are cleaner than Canadian. Unfortunately, any numbers coming out of U.S. government agencies are highly suspect in the last few years. The scientists who work for these agencies have had the results changed or removed from unfavourable reports. And the deal to supply American SUV's with "friendly" Canadian petroleum has left us with a devastated landscape, polluted air and water, and being in the strange position of having to import some of our oil supplies.

John Ibbitson, during an interview on TV Ontario, said that if Canada tried to limit the supply of oil to the U.S. - I believe it was during the softwood lumber dispute - then the U.S. would be within its rights to invade and secure the supply. I couldn't believe my ears.

Harper's goal is to satisfy every U.S. demand to supply its voracious appetite.

I just don't understand why.

And that's why I don't trust the guy as far as I could throw him, which, because of his rapidly expanding girth, is getting less futher away every day.

Let's get wooly

Maybe the stay-at-home mom's could work for the $100 by knitting the rest of us warm sweaters so we could just turn the thermostat down a notch. It's a win-win peope!

M. Président Dion

M. Président Dion has decided to forgive and allow some of his adscam buds back into the fold.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/01/24/3438868.html

Greenwash!

Just like Tom Sawyer and Huck Fin, Harper is just attempting to greenwash Canadians.

Then again all the political parties seem to believe in capitalism, so hard to belive they would forego all the dollars that will be made by producing the oil from the tar sands and wherever else it can be found.'

Fiddlin while Rome burns is what is happening!

$120,000,000 Worth of

$120,000,000 Worth of Bullshit

Harper and Campbell Try Turning Over a New Leaf

Ingmar Lee

In an example of the depth of entrenchment of environmental myopia and repression by government, industry and media, it has taken until 2007 for the political establishment to generate a trickle of interest in BC's stupendous tidal resources. Canada's consumption-economy politicians have long sneered at a growing diversity of alternative energy-production and conservation opportunities in favour of the enormous, centralized, capitalist, planet-killing fossil-fuel economy. But suddenly last week, there was "Canada's New Prime Minister," ~Bush-buddy "Steve" Harper, all self-inflated in his floater-suit and strutting against the back-drop of the pathetic little prototype lunar-power generator now keeping the lights on at Race Rocks lighthouse. Harper was there to pronounce that "Canada's New Government" was now turning over a new leaf, and was signalling interest in the environment. Either embarrassed about having to capitulate to a gathering environmentalist momentum, or simply coldly calculating the political odds of spouting green while driving the status quo, Harper's deadpan monotone announcement perfectly expressed his personal disinterest in all things green. Harper's glacial-paced, kicking and screaming epiphany of the impending global ecological catastrophe will clearly provide massive new opportunities to expand the potential of tidal energy as sea levels inexorably rise...

Then yesterday, in yet another stage-managed PR greenwash gambit, Harper jumped straight onto Gordo's carefully negotiated PR bandwagon in a joint-venture spin-blitz over the beleaguered Great Bear Rainforest. That Canada's most blatant forest-hating neocon's are now exploiting this dreadful deal which gives over 70% of the Belgium-sized ancient forest to industry as 'environmental progress' is, as Karen Wonders describes on her insightful cathedralgrove.se website, a clear example of "unethical appropriation." In hard-core neocon PR vocabulary, Gordo/Steve sluiced another $30 million into the massive, now $120 million greenwash campaign which purports to the world that British Columbia's rapacious logging industry can produce the same amount of fibre while doing less damage to what remains of BC's ancient forests. We're talking the equivalent of trading off the Earth's most significant remaining chunk of intact temperate rainforest wilderness for half a new 747 Jumbo jet.

It is interesting that the Campbell/Harper press release does not mention their corporate-Engo negotiating partners, namely Greenpeace, Sierra Club of BC, ForestEthics and Rainforest Action Network who are providing the greenwash for this deal. "Canada's New Government's" new Bushian message-management apparatus squelches Campbell's provincial pitch, which has neocons collaborating with so-called enviro's. "Canada's New Government" is slathering for votes in BC and spinning the political message to this polarized province is a delicate matter. That Harper will not be associated with these groups is a testament to a long-enduring myth that Greenpeace and Co. still "Stand Tall" for the environment in BC, ~the reality being that the once significant power of the BC environmental movement has now been squandered by corporate-ENGO cooperation, capitulation, and collaboration, even as Canadian's shout out for environmental progress. Campbell, now approaching the end of his illustrious neocon career risks little political capital by hobknobbing and collaborating with quisling, cooperative enviro groups, but Harper still cannot be mentioned in the same message.

Campbell's own neocon government has steadily dumbed-down every single environmental, restorative or remedial regulation which at least purported to protect BC forests, and has accelerated the mowing-down of the same very irreplaceable ancient forests described here (below) in his press announcement as " the largest intact temperate rainforest left on earth, home to thousands of species of plants, birds and animals. There are 1,000 year old cedar trees and 90 metre tall Sitka spruce lining rich salmon streams that weave through valley bottoms, providing food for orcas, black bears, grizzlies and eagles." This language is clearly an "unethical appropriation." There is no precedent for this sort of language in anything Gordo has ever said before, so this just has to be the utterly shameless Harper talking. Campbell's forestry vocabulary is limited to what his major political financiers, ~virtually all logging corporations, wish to hear. Campbell has served his logging industry masters well, mercilessly gutting BC's already gutless Forest Practices Code, trying to privatize BC's vast public forest lands to give them over to industry, slashing and terminating the entire BC Environment Ministry, kowtowing to the American logging industry and lumber lobby, and consistently marginalizing, insulting and criminalizing BC's heartbroken forest protection activists.

Campbell's widely-lauded-in-the-corporate-media "Great Bear Rainforest" (GBR) deal has left only 30% of this "largest intact temperate rainforest" on the planet protected, (although trophy-hunting, mining and hydro-development continues to be allowed in that 30%). The so-called "Eco-System-Based Management" (EBM) by which the remaining 70% is to be logged has not at all been defined (and will not commence until 2009), -allowing for the free-for-all industry massacre of the most precious biodiversity hotspots and valley-bottom sites which is occurring right now. Even the science upon which EBM was to be based was compromised, -during the 7 year closed-door negotiations, the scientific team consensus was that 45-70% of the forest would require outright protection in order to preserve its biodiversity. The 30% so-called "protected" aspect of the deal reverses the scientific geographical/ecological equation. We've seen all this same pro-logging PR spun out in many different ways before, -after the Clayoquot protests, commitments were made to stop clearcutting, for example. What we got instead was the scam of 'variable retention' logging, whereby clumps of marginal timber, or single trees spaced every hundred metres are now retained in the erstwhile clearcuts. Nobody has any idea what EBM will look like, but what is known is that the standard of logging will be much less stringent than the Forest Stewardship Council principles and criteria for ethical, sustainable logging. And to add insult to injury, during the negotiations, Campbell's enviro-partners agreed to suspend any protest for ramped up logging on Vancouver Island and forests across the province.

If anyone has any doubts about just how much damage this logging onslaught will wreak on the Great Bear Rainforests before the "newer, gentler EBM logging techniques" kick-in in 2009, they should take a fly-by of the now updated Google Earth images of East Creek on Vancouver Island, (at the northern foot of the Brooks Peninsula), which was untrammelled intact wilderness until LeMare Lake Logging pushed a road into it just three years ago. If there had been any semblance of effort to log those forests even by the farcical standards of the UBC-prescribed 80-100 year rotation cycle which has guided forest management principals in BC, then no more than 1/80th of that forest should have been logged every year. The idea being, that in the utilitarian vision of liquidation-conversion forest management, once you've logged to the end of a valley's merchantable timber after 80 years, then you get to start again at the front. The BC public needs to understand that the provinces magnificent forest biodiversity is threatened by this "fibre-per-year-per-hectare" corporate management vision. No wilderness can survive an industrial tenant which is hell-bent on reducing rotation cycles down to the fibre that can be taken off the cutblocks annually with lawnmowers. The postponement of EBM until 2009 in the GBR is the final ecological insult, which allows a significant window of aggression for BC's forest destroyers to go in and do their damage.

While you're cruising Google Earth, take a shocking flight around Vancouver Island which has been virtually entirely stripped of its once magnificent forests. Of its 91 watersheds, 85 have now been roaded and gutted by industrial logging. Of the 12% that has been protected as a result of pitched confrontations with forest protection activists back in the days when the enviro-community worked together against the forces of destruction, more than 6% is rock and ice, -above the treeline. Logging started 150 years ago on Vancouver Island, ~it took 120 years to cut the first half of the island's ancient forests, with the rest being stripped off in the last 30 years. And rather than await the long-discussed "fall-down" whereby there was expected to be a 30-year logging hiatus caused by unsustainable logging practices while the timber grew to the 80-100 year rotation age prescribed by the UBC School of Logging in the first place, the industry has thus-far bypassed the falldown by voraciously mowing into second growth forests down to the 30 year-old range. It is Vancouver Island's "second pass" which now supplies the bulk of the fibre to American saw-mills in the form of raw-log exports, a nefarious business massively ramped up by the Campbell regime. Fly around BC. See for yourselves! There is nowhere else on Earth, not Siberia, Ontario, the Amazon or on Borneo that features clearcutting on this scale.

Recently, I attended the two-day UVic "Clubs Day" where 1000's of students browsed through dozens of tables, signing up for various extra-curricular activities such as the Sailing Club, Islamic Club, the federal Liberals (who initiated discussion with student browsers by making the distinction that they were not associated with the BC Liberals), the NDP (federal and provincial at the same table) the Greens, (federal and provincial at the same table) or even the UVic BC Young Liberals. "Canada's New Government" did not bother to have a presence at the UVic Clubs Day, -the only politicians not to do so. And over at the "UVic Young Gordon Campbells" table, although a poster of our bleached-and straightened-teeth-smiling Premier had been stapled up, and various propaganda items were displayed on the table, nobody was there...-all day, both days.

I can only assume that it's becoming difficult to put the greenwash lie of environmental progress out to university students these days, and UVic's "Young Gordon Campbells" and "Young Stephen Harpers" just couldn't muster up the gall to spin the greenwash BS. People need to wake up and understand what's happening to their magnificent primaeval forests, and to recognize that they are irreplaceable and priceless beyond measure. They are being wantonly destroyed for a pittance of return to the people of BC, while American logging CEO's get fat and fatter. Massive deforestation is a major feature of the Global Ecological Catastrophe, and there's nowhere on the planet that is being stripped of its forests as voraciously and efficiently as BC.

Start protecting BC's final ancient forests. Stop electing neocon governments and swallowing their unethically appropriated spin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No Canadian Politico is taking the environment seriously

As the title state, no Canadian politico is taking the environment seriously, instead all we have is photo ops. Harper, Layton, Dion are all cut from the same cloth, all promoters of Bullshit!

ingkhai

If you think one person here took the time to read that manifesto you created - you're wrong.

Keep it short an insightful please. You wasted my time having to scroll through that...

Consider that amoungst the most unproductive uses of time, all time.

Let's Make A Deal starring Stevie and Gordo

Thank you, ingkhai, for the time and effort and heart that went into writing your piece.

Every word worth the read.

Please Repeat

ingkhai I missed some of what you said, could you repeat, only louder.

Co-opt this!

ingkhai is making some really important points about the subterfuge taking place at all levels within this massive PR exercise... even within some sectors of a complicit and co-opted environmental movement.

"Co-option through co-operation."

Much like what is now happening within the First Nations treaty process as Campbell uses the process to satiate his affinity for corporate "partnering" projects.

The rule is: Do not co-operate with traitors.

Absolutely

Cappy: It is a principle of my analysis that there is no difference between the disgusting Liberals and the revolting neo cons. That's why members can move between the parties with no sense of guilt or shame. That's the problem with Canada, or one or many.

You thought there was a difference?

CAPPY

You got that one right! Both are completely useless in governing this country.

environment

Mr. Harper kept his word when he stated that his government would not use a comedian to promote environmental policy (remember Rick Mercier and the "One Tonne Challenge"?). In fact, Mr. Harper was true to his word...he used a comedienne instead!

Cappy should complain

Look who is talking!
Nobody waste more space here than you!

re ingmr's "manifesto"

While I may agree with Capitalism's capsule comment upon Ingmar's style, which - because of Ingmar's considerable talent could easily see constraining of his penchant for effusive and unnecessary rhetoric - I find myself in full agreement with Lynne's assessment of his message.

For those who are curious about the GBR deal which Gordo and his cronies are bragging about, (which in itself should clue you in), it is worth the considerable effort to sort out Ingmar's rhetoric from his analysis of the gains and losses.

The truth is that the GBR agreement does indeed represent a sell-out by grant-seeking, power-hungry enviro groups whose empire-building objectives override their concern for the environment.

I'm not voting for him.

Yup made up my mind. I think I'd rather have Bernie Sanders.

It all began with "new " and "improved"...

One of the reasons the public is such an easy mark for all the subterfuge presently being pulled on us by Gordo and Stevie and the rest of the Neocon Gang is that too many people only relate to the sound-bite... or to the short and cute commercial slogan that sells things.

It's what advertising is all about... and it has indoctrinated millions to the tune of its cute jingles and empty slogans rather well over the years.

And too many unthinkingly buy it.

And too many seem to like it short and running on empty...our information that is.

And "The New Government" counts on it.... that we all keep falling for the short, cute stuff...in hopes that no one will notice that the all important details and the complexities of real information have gone missing.

It is how they are selling out this country... and all our resources right under our very noses.

It's no wonder Steve is so

It's no wonder Steve is so concerned about the environment. In 2003 he went to Versailles and met with the likes of David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger and Conrad Black, people who as we all know are so concerned about the environment. It's comforting to think that Steve is being mentored by these great souls and working so hard to stop the people from destroying their planet. God bless Steve! And god bless Al Gore!

Right on Lynn, except...

Right on the money, Lynn except I would add/ specify the complicity in all of this by Gordo's propaganda department, namely CanWest Goebbels. And speaking of Goebbels, a contemporary of his was also right on the money when he said "How fortunate for politicians that most people are stupid".

long live harper! long live

long live harper! long live the amero and north american union!

free travel from anchorage to the yucatan!

Fat Herman

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
-- Herman Goering

"Cycling" Commuter

As usual, Cycling Commuter can't make a post without attacking the NDP.

Tell me CC how good it was for the environment for you right-wingers to sign all these pro-globalization trading deals so that we can get our stuff from anywhere but Canada? If you're worried about the commute from Coquitlam why is it worse than getting our Xmas trees from the US and out electronics from Asia? Also, tell me how good it was for the environment for right wing politicos and developers to be pushing urban sprawl and strip malls for the past 5 decades. And since you like Campbell so much let me know how great it is for the environment to keep removing land from the ALR for his developer buddies.

And while you're at it please please let me know how long you need to cycle to pay back all the carbon emissions your jet-setting around the world to check on the environment caused.

The NDP has to get up pretty early in the morning to match your level of hypocrisy.

Goebbels, Goering and Co.

Couldn't agree more, DJT

RickW: Thanks for that revealing Goering quote you posted... the present modus operandi of PNAC.

You said "it" Ingmar... :-)

Every word of it dude, you tell it like it really is, especially in talking about the GBA. What a group of sell-out’s...”say it louder”...SELL OUT enviro’s. A few ENGO groups didn't buy into it. They saw the writing on the wall, and said so... Good on them, though it should be a standard, NOT an exception…. The others sold out, and that is the simple truth of it...

Now the "Cut and Run" happening on the coast is unbelievable and pathetic. One would have to see it to believe it… It has been said that the rate of cutting is 5x what it was before the agreement...

Thanks for saying “it” Ingmar and thanks to those who agree with what you said...

Peace,

Bear

Campbell will resign on 15 April 2007

Lynn, Ingkhai ...

The important line is this one:

Campbell, now approaching the end of his illustrious neocon career ...

Right on. I figure that Gordo is toast, approx. 15 April 2007.

You worked it out, too, eh?

I read every word

Rhetoric or not, Ingkhai has pegged it.

I live on Haida Gwaii and can tell you that the same thing is happening here. All efforts to create value-added industry seem to be pushed to the wayside in support of big industry. As raw timber continues to leave here at what seems a ever faster pace. Selling out our forests, our energy, our water to big corporate intrests south of the border seem to be the way of Campbell and Harper.

The Goering quote is most telling. However, I think the numbers of those no longer buying the BS are growing and the Cappy's of the world are soon going to be outnumbered by those who actually care about the future of our children and grandchildren. Our voice is already growing louder otherwise, the corps would not even bother trying to sell their green wash.

Let it be known far and wide the traitorous actions of our provincial and federal government! Word of mouth is a powerful tool, let's use it!

BTW.....

Cappy you're wrong. I, for one, read every word of Inkhai's post.

apthysux :-)

apathysux..."WORD OF MOUTH", I am with you all the way my friend. The pilaging of the Central Coast, Haida Gwaii and other B.C. lands, has got to stop, and LLLLONG before 2009...!! A vocal people is the only chance these lands and those who live on them, have.

Peace,

Bear

Skip Cappy!

I did read every word of Inkhai's post Cappy, I just skipped over yours like I always do!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I agree with Rite2Bear, and especially like the quote she provided , and I am repeating it:

"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he
spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time
tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority."
E.B. White (1899 - 1995)

Enjoy your weekend!

freebear :-)

...back at you friend, have a great weekend!!

bfn,

Bear

"It would be great if BC

"It would be great if BC Hydro or whatever BC Gas is called these days . . ."

Goldman Sachs. They bought Kinder Morgan outright a few months back. They also now own Whistler/Blackcomb and are on the Board of of CN Rail. Not that international Jewish bankers are trying to take over BC or anything.

I read every word of Inkhai's post twice and in fact was delighted when I saw it. I am familiar with Ingmar Lee's prolific and extremely knowledgeble ramblings of the state of the environmental sell-out groups and BC forestry issues in general from a mail list that I used to belong before my last laptop permanently crashed. I never did get back on that list but as always, he is right on the money. The only thing that the sell-out groups who now represent "the enviromental community" of BC are interested in preserving is their lucrative corporate funded jobs.

Ian MacAllister was also bemoaning the fate of the Great Bear in the Globe and Mail article on the subject. Unlike the San Francisco based modelspokespersons with names like Merrin and Tzeporah, he actually lives there but I disagree that Aspernazi media Canwest Goebbels is the propaganda arm of Gorden Campbell. The shoe is on the other foot, Campbell is merely a replaceable tool.

I am yearning for the days when the reward for treason was not a Swiss bank account but facing a firing squad.

"God bless Steve! And god bless Al Gore!"

In their new found zeal for environmental issues Canada's New (World Order) Government is merely falling in line for the establishment of the world's first world government. Al Gore Jr owes his money to the looting of the Russian Empire via fellow Rothschild tool Armand Hammer and Gore's daughter Karenna is married to the grandson of Rothschild tool banker Jacob Schiff who bragged about how he spent $20 million bringing down the Czar.

Bring it on. Only then will we able to pop the scaborous crust that has congealed over all of the better intentions of the human race.

No matter how the story is told, the King of Kings gets crucified.

True kjc...

True kjc, Ian McAllister of the Raincoast Society, and Wayne and Colleen McCrory of the Vahalla Wilderness Society, were two groups who read the writing on the wall when it came to the Great Bear Agreement. They were right. Since the agreement, the logging on the coast has increased at least 5 fold. Whole mountainsides, right down to the salmon-bearing streams are scraped clean, and this raping of the area will continue to be done until there is nothing left...

2009-Too Late...

Peace kjc,

Bear

Harper's Green Mirage

The policies that will make a real difference on climate change are a strong "cap and trade" regime for major point-source emitters AND (not OR) a modest (but inexorably-increasing) carbon tax on everyone (consumers and producers). The "cap and trade" permits should be auctioned so that major emitters are not grandfathered and effectively subsidized, by the distribution of free permits. The cap can be set high, initially, but should be tightened annually, by governments purchasing permits in the market and immediately retiring them.

The distributional effects of the latter could be prevented from being socially regressive by a reduction in the lowest rate of income tax (and an increase in the basic personal exemption) with refundable cash credits going to to low-income citizens who already pay no income tax.

I don't see the Conservatives, Liberals or NDP championing a package like this, because they are too beholden to various constituencies that will object to some or other portion of it. By watering down one part, they undermine the political fairness (and thus the durability) of the rest of the package and thus guarantee an inadequate public policy response, and inadequate results.

The inevitable consequence then, is that if you want real action on climate change, vote for a party with the minimum baggage in terms of human vested interests. The choice is obvious and the polls already show it - only the Green Party has much credibility on these issues.

Ironically, because of the long-run "prisoner's dilemma" nature of climate change politics, voting for the party least beholden to existing blocks of voters is the way to serve the best long-term collective interests of those very voters. It will certainly serve the interest of voters "intergenerationally", and it will benefit other (non-voting) species at the same time.

Michael Barkusky