The politics of being green briefly rippled across Canada's sea of news again today, a sea filled mostly with loud forecasts of economic doom.
And while there is still some Canadian reluctance to wed economics and the environment, today's announcement by the government of Israel to install an electric car network throughout their country in less than four years underscores the urgency with which we in Canada must dump our paleolithic economic paradigms, and Stephen Harper along with them.
Compare Israel's bold move with Harpers non-interventionist consumer tax cuts, which do little more than boost China's manufacturing sector. Hardly a sound decision in a time when Canadian manufacturers are in financial pain. If you disagree, I dare you to check the manufacturing labels of your latest purchases.
Better yet, compare Harper's laissez-faire mentality with Stephane Dion's proposal to invest $1 billion in green manufacturing and R&D, and his promise to "balance the carbon budget." The idea is simple - give a shot in the arm to green manufacturers rather than let them die along with other industries and position Canada for a softer economic landing.
This isn't a fairy-tale. With the kind of noises being made about Vancouver's hydrogen-powered Angstrom Power Inc., Canada is so well-positioned to be the leader of this energy revolution that it almost hurts to see us be so immobile on the subject. (Maybe we can pull ahead of Israel and install a hydrogen-network or develop a hydrogen-powered vehicle. With a visionary at the helm, the possiblities are endless.)
Smelling an election, Elizabeth May has also has come out swinging by calling Stephen Harper a "climate change denier," embracing the NTREE carbon tax proposal, and calling for "a moratorium on new projects in the tar sands and a total phase-out of nuclear power and uranium mining." They would even "amend the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to enshrine Canadians' rights to healthy air and water." All worthy ideas.
But for all the Green's fantastic rhetoric on their will to create local "green economies," they are still short of the kind of specific initiatives that would get us there, which isn't much better than the useless posturing coming from the NDP.
With the economy switching gears, we need a leader who knows "where the puck is going to be," to quote a great Canadian visionary. The timing of this election highlights how Harper's ideological opposition to the new economics of progress makes him and his party all but irrelevant.
And while there is still some Canadian reluctance to wed economics and the environment, today's announcement by the government of Israel to install an electric car network throughout their country in less than four years underscores the urgency with which we in Canada must dump our paleolithic economic paradigms, and Stephen Harper along with them.
Compare Israel's bold move with Harpers non-interventionist consumer tax cuts, which do little more than boost China's manufacturing sector. Hardly a sound decision in a time when Canadian manufacturers are in financial pain. If you disagree, I dare you to check the manufacturing labels of your latest purchases.
Better yet, compare Harper's laissez-faire mentality with Stephane Dion's proposal to invest $1 billion in green manufacturing and R&D, and his promise to "balance the carbon budget." The idea is simple - give a shot in the arm to green manufacturers rather than let them die along with other industries and position Canada for a softer economic landing.
This isn't a fairy-tale. With the kind of noises being made about Vancouver's hydrogen-powered Angstrom Power Inc., Canada is so well-positioned to be the leader of this energy revolution that it almost hurts to see us be so immobile on the subject. (Maybe we can pull ahead of Israel and install a hydrogen-network or develop a hydrogen-powered vehicle. With a visionary at the helm, the possiblities are endless.)
Smelling an election, Elizabeth May has also has come out swinging by calling Stephen Harper a "climate change denier," embracing the NTREE carbon tax proposal, and calling for "a moratorium on new projects in the tar sands and a total phase-out of nuclear power and uranium mining." They would even "amend the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to enshrine Canadians' rights to healthy air and water." All worthy ideas.
But for all the Green's fantastic rhetoric on their will to create local "green economies," they are still short of the kind of specific initiatives that would get us there, which isn't much better than the useless posturing coming from the NDP.
With the economy switching gears, we need a leader who knows "where the puck is going to be," to quote a great Canadian visionary. The timing of this election highlights how Harper's ideological opposition to the new economics of progress makes him and his party all but irrelevant.
Labels: economy, election, environment, Israel
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