A few months ago I told my friends that I was hoping for a really hot summer, so all those Con clowns who don't believe that global warming is real, could be roasted in their own ignorance.
And Justin Trudeau could use the issue of climate change in the upcoming election to clobber Erin O'Toole, and win himself another majority.
And boy did that wish come true.
Today in the place where I live it felt like 40 degrees outside.
And this is a bonus.
Scientists are declaring a code red.
Human activity is changing the Earth’s climate in ways “unprecedented” in thousands or hundreds of thousands of years, with some of the changes now inevitable and “irreversible”, climate scientists have warned.
Within the next two decades, temperatures are likely to rise by more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, breaching the ambition of the 2015 Paris climate agreement, and bringing widespread devastation and extreme weather.
And warning that unless we can get serious about fighting climate change it could get even hotter.
Which would be a terrible thing.
But right now at this critical time in Canadian history, it's great for the Trudeau Liberals because unlike the other parties they have a serious climate plan.
And if you take the time to read it, it's really quite impressive. Even the Star Editorial Board calls the plan to limit green house gas emissions a winner.
Having now passed into law, Bill C-12, subtitled An Act Respecting Transparency and Accountability in Canada’s Efforts to Achieve Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions by the Year 2050, offers something we could all use a dose of right about now: hope.
The notes of optimism supporting the legislation can be heard from the Pembina Institute (“a tremendous win for climate action in Canada”) to Ecojustice (“the legal foundation Canada has long needed to bring consistency to climate governance”) to the West Coast Environmental Law Association, which highlighted the urgency for action made clear by the unprecedented heat dome temperatures in the west.
The reviews are great, and most importantly science will finally trump ideology.
Target-setting in Canada will be informed by scientific evidence, Indigenous knowledge, input from an advisory board and an assessment of international commitments. The watchwords are transparency and accountability: the setting of national targets must be backstopped by a clearly reported action plan. Progress and assessment reports will be tabled in the House. This is key: each GHG target must represent a progression from the previous one.
Concrete emissions targets are now the law in this land. As with any such legislation, the proof will lie in its implementation. GASP, or the group Grand(m)others Act to Save the Planet, says it is pleasing to see the government take this firm step. Now it’s time to shift to emergency mode.
But of course the plans still don't go far enough. We shall not arrive at a greener Canada if we keep pandering to Alberta's oil sands, to try to keep that province from separating.
Or don't do our best to try to wean Canadians off their monstrous love affair with the car.
Like the Scottish government is trying to do by providing free bus passes for young people.
Free bus travel for 930,000 people under the age of 22 will be rolled out in Scotland from January next year.
Transport minister, Graeme Dey, said: “It’s crucial to embed more sustainable travel behaviour from a young age if we are to achieve our world-leading goal of reducing the number of kilometres travelled by car by 20% by 2030 and reaching net zero emissions by 2045.
Even as the country that has North Sea oil, gets closer and closer to powering the country with renewables.
I realize it's a mighty challenge for a full fledged petro state like Canada, but we'll never get anywhere unless we start thinking green.
And Justin Trudeau will never be able to implement his excellent plan unless he gets a majority.
For the opposition parties are not up to the challenge, and are only interested in playing cheap political games.
And only a vote for the Trudeau Liberals is a vote for a greener Canada.
So do it when the time comes, or watch the country burn, and regret it forever...
With the cons sputtering on every issue pertaining to modernity (especially climate change), I suspect the messaging wars in the run-up to the election are going to "heat up" with NDP trolls who are similarly fixated on "Justin's pipeline" to the exclusion of all else. Perfection is the enemy of progress, and they fail to take into account the big picture because "Justin Harper" didn't give them luxury space communism overnight. The orange cult is out in full force on this blog, on Reddit, and elsewhere online, pushing their propaganda in every conceivable space. Yet for all their bitching about Trudeau, they again fail to offer any solutions of their own.
ReplyDeleteSo I would focus my ire upon them while pointing out the regressive extremism of the Cons as the far worse enemy they're enabling. The NDP once more prefers to point their circular firing squad in the wrong direction out of petty jealousy. Singh decided to pay a 5-minute visit to the Maritimes where he condemned Trudeau as being "all talk and no action." Yet refused to provide his own plan, other than the bog-standard negative Con talking point of "Trudeau bad."
Sir Talks-a-Lot is clearly facing an existential crisis of his own, because if the Liberals get a majority, he'll face irrelevance and all his Tik Tok capital will dry up like a D-list minor celebrity on MySpace. The old tool can't drag the base into the 21st century, and the whole Con movement deserves to see their blue gas guzzler pickup run into an electoral ditch. But it's the NDP who really needs to be countered as deceitful, destructive nihilists who would help them finish the job of burning Canada to a crisp just to own the Libs.
The climate emergency is going to cook us all unless JT acts now. The latest IPCC report says the carbon budget that gives us the best odds of staying below 1.5°C runs out in less than five and a half years at our current emissions rate. That means JT's net-zero target of 2050 needs to be moved up to 2026.
ReplyDeleteTrudeau has the chance to go down as one of our greatest PMs, but he needs to shut down Big Oil within his next mandate. Mark Carney warned of this a decade ago. If needed, nationalize the industry and put roughnecks to work on oil well cleanup. There's enough of that work to last for years. Yes, AB and SK will howl, but they weren't voting Lib anyway. As the Cons love to say, "screw your feelings." Just get it done.
Iveson says that peter peckerhead is dodging connection to either the errant oldfool or the party. He advises The Dear Leader to adopt an all shouting all vitriol plan to gain popularity. No mention that adopting a climate plan to replace the xenophobia, sexism, racism and homophobia that is the core value of the CPC might help.
ReplyDeletePP may be positioning himself to be the next leader of a changed right wing. Is he expecting a split with the angry deplorables leaving in a huff ( a black four door Huff with a huge engine belching CO2 to be exact ) to restore the old tired reform party to also ran status ?
Maybe we're about to see the Mad Max Party, The Derek Sloan Party , the PP Party and more. What jocularity.
Derek's deplorables would, of course , be voting for The Sloan Ranger.
ReplyDeleteJT is already putting Saskabertans to work cleaning up oil wells, and still they complain about no jobs and grumble about western alienation. Market forces are phasing out the industry all on their own, much to cons' chagrin if perhaps not as quickly as the orange rose brigade would prefer. No need for JT to embark upon a... nationalized energy program, one that would consist of public ownership and central planning. He is Pierre's son after all, but he's not Fidel's. 😏
ReplyDeleteMarket forces won't shut down the AB/SK industry fast enough. In fact, more wells are coming online with the rise in global oil prices. The industry's happy to profit off pouring gas on global warming.
DeleteThe IPCC scientists say we have 5.5 years to get to net-zero, not a generation. So far, their predictions have been wrong, the situation is always worse than they say. This is a crisis, it's time to act like it. There's no time to kick the can down the road like some covidiot "still doing their research."
A new NEP? Even Justin’s not stupid enough to provide his own rope to hang himself with.
DeleteHi Jackie....Yes, the orange cult is really putting on quite a show. Their not very bright leader has never been able to master complex policies, he doesn't have the attention span, and gets bored easily. So he reduces climate change to a simple line he can write on the palm of his hand. "If Trudeau is serious about climate change why did he build a pipeline?" It's a pipeline to nowhere, it helped keep Kenney from inciting secession, at a time when his star was flying high, and the tarry sludge that is flowing through it now is helping to fund the transition to a greener future. But don't tell Singh Smear that, he wouldn't understand. As for the election, I'm sure you're right, it is going to be a bumpy ride. But we know how to fight, and the Cons, the NDP, and the Bloc, are going to find that out...
ReplyDeleteHi anon@7:30 AM....If Trudeau can get a majority, he might well be able to do some of the things you suggest. But let's be absolutely clear, if he does not get a majority, he won't be able to do practically anything, even though he is the only political leader who has the courage to think out of the box. Far too many Canadians are only to willing to blame others for their own shortcomings, as they demand action while felting their cars. So you know what to do, get out there and campaign for Trudeau or forever hold your tongue....
ReplyDeleteHi rumleyfips...Yes, I read that Ivison column and I was left shaking my head. How could a serious journalist jump on that pigeon's back? Poilievre has gone all-out fascist, and is pumping out some of the most absurd garbage I've ever read. Ivison must really be desperate. And yes, I watched a video on Sloan's Facebook page, and he was inviting a rather large collection of his crazed followers to wave goodbye to O'Toole. I might try to include it in in my next post. One has to encourage the fragmentation of the Cons, for once it starts the Reformatories are doomed...
ReplyDeleteHi anon@12:49 PM….atop sounding so hysterical, you sound like the Disaffected Lib. He as suggesting we close down the tar sands overnight. And needless to say you just can’t do that. A civil war in the middle of a climate emergency is not the solution, not as long as so many Canadians love their cars more than they love their children. If Trudeau gets a strong majority I’m sure he will declare a state of emergency and take major steps to transitioning the economy out of the fossil fuel hell we find ourselves in. But let’s not kid ourselves it will take time….
ReplyDeleteEven if Trudeau wins a majority with tackling full on the climate change problem as part of the Liberal platform, he will continue stalling. The Libs and Cons are no different when it comes to paying back their benefactors. If you doubt this, do you see any difference between the Democrats and Republicans, in the way they have since the 1990's, catered to Big Oil and Big Business - lowering taxes, allowing mergers resulting in a reduction of competition, signing trade agreements which give corporations government like powers, and giving a smidgeon of lip service to climate change.
ReplyDeleteYou see those that are loyal to O'Toole as blind idiots. In my opinion you are overly loyal to Trudeau, as, if you do see any of his foibles, you certainly keep quiet about them. If you don't see them, you are no better than the followers of O'Toole.
Who still has a Resistance chart? The provincial premier of Costa Rica is heading back to Margaritaville. Bye, Lurch.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-premier-brian-pallister-announcement-1.6136047
Man, if Dougie and Jason get the boot, there'll be no stooges left but Moe. Someone ask Paul Wells if eating crow tastes like chicken.
Well Dennis, you certainly are a menace. "Both parties are the same" sure turned out well for the States, didn't it Bernie Bot? Let's be realistic, how many Kristallnacht attacks do you honestly think Hillary Clinton would have incited with a stochastic Twitter account? NAFTA probably wouldn't have even been reopened, because she wouldn't feel the need to use it as a wedge issue to puff her chest out at Trudeau over petty grievances like jealousy of his hair. Or if it had, those protections that Canada tried to have put in would have sailed smoothly through and we'd have a better, fairer trade deal for all. And last but certainly not least, two innocent diplomats wouldn't be rotting behind bars in China, because Hillary Clinton wouldn't have had a dick-measuring trade war with Pooh Bear on account that "trade wars are fun and easy to win." But do tell me again how both parties are the same. Give me a break.
ReplyDeleteIf Al Gore had won in 2000 instead of Ralph Nader splitting the vote for the (cough) Green Party, we'd have stayed out of Iraq and Afghanistan and been well on our way to a comprehensive climate plan. If Hillary had won in 2016 instead of Comrade Jill Stein splitting the vote for the (hmmm) Green Party... well, I'm sure you get the pattern by now. The fact is the NDP are just Trump's shade of orange cloaked in a fake costume of progressivism. They attack the wrong "enemy" in a circular firing squad. and only end up aiding the right. Look up pincer warfare and the horseshoe of politics. The NDP are saboteurs who don't really want to see progress because it makes them feel small and irrelevant. Already, a Saskatchewan NDP just jumped ship to the federal Grits, because he knows how to pick a winner. If Trudeau gets a majority, the NDP may as well cease to exist.
Minority government gridlock is dysfunctional, period. Down here, Biden wants to get shit done but is constrained by the obstructionism of the GOP, the purity tests of the Squad rump and the bizarre fraternizing with the enemy by two blue-dog turncoats throwing the game for the other team. If Biden had a de facto majority in both houses, he could pass his agenda without giving a damn about Manchin or Sanders. Instead there's nothing but a useless traffic jam, intended by design such that Republicans and cosplay communists can both point to the dysfunction and say that government does not work. Republicans will point to it as a need for a Trump dictatorship, while the Bernshevik cult will stomp their feet and call for revolution against "electoralism" instead of actually showing up to vote. Chaos agents, the lot of you. A pox on both your houses.
Told you Simon. The orange cult are angry murder hornets and they're swarming at Liberal supporters like drones from the Jag-Hive. Perhaps they're hybrid dung beetles, attacking in droves with clumps of shit.
The sudden surge of Orange Kneedipper hornets here shows how desperate they are to stall an election.
ReplyDeleteThey have no money.
Any juice in the polling data (no. orange crush wave.)
No actual plan if they were to suddenly become the government.
At this point all they can do is tout some sense of moral superiority which might help them feel better but doesn't do jack in terms of running a government.
At the time I never really understood why Jack Layton's NDP didn't attack the Cons like they did the Libs. I get why they hate the Libs, but the Cons were supposed to be against everything they supported. I also didn't get why Dionne avoided forming a government with Layton in 08.
After all this, now I get it.
Hi Menace...Does it make you feel good, spouting that nonsense, and deciding who is a progressive and who isn't? It's a game lot of NDP cult members like to play and it's pathetic. I used to support the NDP, who knows, one day I might support them again. But not while they behave like you. Justin Trudeau has done more to restore the Canada I and so many others believe in. He doesn't play one group against the other like the Cons do all the time, and he doesn't smear his opponents like Jagmeet Singh does, while claiming credit all the time for the work others. And most importantly, Trudeau has supported the rights of women and LGBT Canadians more than any Canadian leader ever has. And that's why I support him, although I am not a card carrying Liberal Party member. But I do prefer them to the new and very ugly breed of NDP trolls who spend all their time attacking Trudeau, in the same manner as the Cons. The ones who haven't an ounce of empathy, and are a disgrace to the long and proud history of the NDP. Winning has become everything, and that's why they never will...
ReplyDeleteHi Jackie...I am glad to see that Pallister is leaving, and is no doubt planning to spend more time, in Costa Rica than he has before. As I once said you can't trust a guy with a four-car garage. To make matters worse he is such a religious fanatic that he believes that Halloween is demonic, and would shut it down if he could. Good riddance to bad rubbish. And it does make Paul Wells' ridiculous Maclean's article look absolutely ridiculous. Wells knows it too, because he's becoming more and more bitter, and biased. As the Cons slowly crumble I expect we're going to see a lot of mental breakdowns.Sad....
ReplyDeleteHi Dan...I must admit that the sudden surge of the orange hornets both surprised and shocked me. I have never seen anything like it. Progressives behaving like Cons? It's disgraceful and disgusting. And their sense of superiority is farcical, but also infuriating. I foolishly believed that Singh might raise them out of the gutter, but I'm afraid that he is down there with them, crawling along on all fours. Trudeau isn't perfect, but he's so much better than that...
ReplyDeleteSimon - as I have mentioned before, I was previously active in battling online Bernie Bots in two elections south of 49. I can assure you that they are vicious and will only get worse as the election moves forward. Be aware of the possibility of social media hostilities spilling over into the real world while canvassing; Bernie Bros can get physical just like MAGA morons. I hope that tensions don't escalate to that level in Canada as they have here.
ReplyDeleteAs well, the NDP's over-reliance on Internet messaging leaves them open to not just engaging with alt-right accounts in bad faith, but in turn, to being a vector for disinformation and bad actors both foreign and domestic. I mentioned Tik Tok being a PRC spyware app and Singh being either oblivious to its security risks or, more likely, not giving a damn as long as he gets to mug for the camera and groom the youth vote. I don't know if you can see the video in Canada but a CBS 60 Minutes report has more details on what Tik Tok really is.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tiktok-cybersecurity-china-60-minutes-2020-11-15/
Matthew Green who appeared in that Jacobin article is another one who has been caught sharing right-wing content, first from Post Millennial and now an out-of-context Twitter video about Trudeau and Indigenous people, shared by an anonymous user from alt-right website Gab (aka "MAGA Twitter"). Worth noting also that Singh and now Pigeon Pete have the same overlapping slogan "Fighting for you". It sounds generic enough but doesn't it seem curious that the CPC and NDP are sharing the same verbiage?
NDP are also proudly touting skewed Angus Reid polls in their PR tweets. Foreign infiltrators and right-wing dark-money saboteurs have been keen on co-opting so-called progressives and amplifying divisive messaging meant to hook voters of visible minority status. In the US, it is primarily Black and Hispanic demographics who get intentionally conned as a means of suppressing the vote; in Canada, it would primarily be the Indigenous, again with bad-faith exploitation of their suffering as a wedge issue to put reconciliation to bed once and for all.
The following are some links for you to look at explaining how the GOP did this with groups like "Blacks for Trump" and third-party paper candidates. The Canadian right is an extension of the GOP and should not be counted out to do the same. The Canadian left are their useful idiots just like the Squad stans are here.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/10/13/black-fake-twitter-accounts-for-trump/
https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/viral-pro-trump-tweets-came-fake-african-american-spam-accounts-n1238553
https://www.npr.org/2021/07/01/1012107432/how-a-former-spy-trained-conservatives-to-infiltrate-progressive-groups
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/25/us/politics/spies-conservatives-left-political-enemies.html
This is what you call controlled opposition. Stand on guard for thee.