Oh, the outrage. Who knew that you need to swear to get the media coverage on climate change, even if indirectly? You'd think that the threat to human civilization itself would be enough.
And while Justin Trudeau quickly apologized to Environment Minister Peter Kent for calling him a "piece of sh*t," saying it was "decidedly unparliamentary," Twitter lit up largely in support of the outburst, tapping into a wave of anger across the country with many Canadians feeling deeply betrayed by their government for reneging on Canada's international climate commitments.
But we are now supposed to go back to being polite and ignoring our anger, to respecting rules of decorum, and to generally going along with the agenda of our duly elected government, even if that agenda involves undermining the conditions of life on Earth for our kids so that the oil industry can ramp up the strip mining of northern Alberta?
I have a five-year-old boy and, like all parents, I would throw myself in front of a bullet heading his way; yet somehow I'm supposed to suspend that instinct when it comes to climate change. I'm supposed to bide my time until the next election, hoping somehow that Canadian voters will not be duped by the multi-million dollar campaign of tar sands companies, and by the relentless spin of a government that has chosen to represent them rather than its citizens.
I'm supposed to bite my tongue when Peter Kent characterizes his dirty oil as "ethical," and roll over when his colleague Joe Oliver says that his government will not respect the "conspiracy theories" of the "unlawful people" who clearly don't want a new tar sands pipeline to the B.C. coast.
When scientists tell me that we are in deep trouble unless we quickly switch away from fossil fuels, I'm supposed to force this to the deepest recesses of my soul where it will not interfere with some oil executive's myopic definition of Canadian "nation building," despite the fact that others around the world are already looking at our nation and wondering how it could have gone so wrong.
All this, and we marvel when somebody like Justin Trudeau has an angry outburst? The more surprising thing is that we don't see it much more often, as the situation actually demands.
Part of it is our Canadian-ness, our hard-wired politeness, even when unwarranted. We may be just waking up to the fact that Ottawa is now being run by a group of people who don't themselves play by these rules, yet rely on the fact that everybody else does. They lash out and then smile to themselves when those they hit feel the need to apologize for the altercation. This is how they get their way.
It needs to end. We Canadians need to learn to be outraged by the outrageous. We need to learn that democracy is now a full contact sport that requires us to repeatedly raise our voices in order to be heard, and not to wait for our turn to quietly mark an X on a ballot once every four years.
It is only when our outbursts turn into a regular drumbeat that we will start to see the change that we and our children need. We each need to join in calling bullsh*t, and then actively pitch in to clean it all up.
TWITTER REACTS TO CANADA PULLING OUT OF KYOTO PROTOCOL
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Two people are dead after a small plane crashed in south-west Ottawa.
Dear Diary: Justin Trudeau's Movember moustache gains sentience, takes over ...
The Canadian MSM including the CBC are cutting it pretty closer as well.
The good news is that with a 45% approval rating by the cons and Harper's determination to not listen to the opposition he will not reach wider popularity. The opposition has 4 years to get it together and not split the vote.
If we can't get angry over the blatant destruction of our democratic traditions, then Canada's Faith Based Government will have no problem outspending whoever tries to run against them (legal spending or otherwise).
You shouldn't be waiting - Paul Martin apologized and called a JUDICIAL INQUIRY into it, if you didn't notice that then look it up.
Also, unless your keyboard is broken, you are GROSSLY exaggerating the amount of money:
"In the end the Commission concluded that $2 million was awarded in contracts without a proper bidding process, $250,000 was added to one contract price for no additional work, and $1.5 million was awarded for work that was never done, of which $1 million had to be repaid. " -wikipedia
Not $3 billion, only 3 MILLION; not stolen but improperly spent without bids, and more than half the money REPAID.
Liberal AdScam: $3 million in improper spending. $1 million repaid.
Conservative in/out: $30 million + in electoral fraud. None repaid.
It's a fraud TEN TIMES the size, and you don't care. Hypocrite!
Liberal AdScam: Martin apologizes, calls inquiry.
Conservative in/out: Harper pleads guilty, pretends to be vindicated. no inquiry.
Add in Tony Clement's G20 boondoggle at $50 million, tha'ts TWENTY times the money, no apology, no repayment, no inquiry.
Steven must be happy that he still has millions of supporters as foolish as you.
So, should we blame the oil industry for supplying resources that we/society demand? Sounds hypocritical to me. Why don't we point fingers at ourselves? Because it is easier to blame others then to take responsibility for being a big part of the problem. I challenge anyone to count the number of products in their home that are made from oil-derived products. It would be easier to count the number that aren't.
Here are some more facts: (1) new oil sands development is expected to contribute over $2.1 trillion 2010 dollars to the Canadian economy over the next 25 years, (2) the oil sands industry will pay an estimated $766 in provincial and federal taxes, and provincial royalties over the next 25 years, (3) oil sands total green house gas emissions in 2009 were 45 megatonnes, which is only 3.5% of emissions from U.S. coal fired power plants, and (4) the Athabasca River is the main source of water for oil sands mining projects, and the industry withdrew 0.5 % of the average total river flows from the river.
In the media we hear such a lop-sided view on the oil sands development. It is a huge economic engine and the technology is evolving quickly. Green house gas emissions will soon equal that of imported oil. Oil sands mining looks ugly but it will be all remediated back to ecologically productive land as required by law.
This is amusing. You have been. For 6 years now. I still have the words "Body bags" with 4 exclamation marks after it burned to my retinas. What? No one remembers this?
That's right. Just like no one remembers that right to abortion and gay marriage we supposed to be history by now if tyhe Conservative party got a majority.
Got a call from the other day. It was just a recording of Chretiens ghost, apparently, telling me the same thing will happen after the next election too. I was really creepy getting a call from the dead like that.
I mean nevermind that recinding gay marriage or right to abortion would be about as difficult to do right now as reciding a woman's right to vote, just keep on hammering the fear mongering message to attract as many of the ignorant to your flock as you can.
Did the call warn you our government would plan to double prison sizes without planning a single dollar in support for new prisons?
Did the call remind you that Tony Clement's G20 haul and the in-and-out electoral fraud are each taxpayer frauds that are 10 or 20 times as big as AdScam?
Did the call point out that this government has decided the all committee work will be private, so that we can't even find out what they're doing for our money, so that their actual purposes and debate can remain hidden?
Did the call tell you that continually referring to Chretien, who has been out of politics for over a decade and has had THREE successors since then, is a pathetic personal attack on someone long irrelevant, and that after three terms the government should be running on its record instead of attacks on pensioners?
If not, I doubt it was Chretien; it certainly wasn't his ghost since he's still alive.
No actually teh call didn't remind me of any of those things, but Chretiens ghost did remind me that they handed a Canadian citizen over to their good buddy George Bush so they could torture him in Syria. Cost us $10M.
He did remind me about adscam. He did remind me that he signed us up to an international GHG's emissions reduction treaty without once asking the provinces or himself how it might be done.
"If not, I doubt it was Chretien; it certainly wasn't his ghost since he's still alive. "
Gee thanks Poindexter. It was a joke. He and the party are ghosts of a sort.
The addition of a goatee for December would lead one to conclude that the new goal is to promote the treatment for tourettes syndrome....Swearember perhaps?
Well, if Canadians stopped staring at their navels, perhaps more people just might make their
Politicians squirm on a hot seat of perpetual sweat.
Writing a stern letter to a Politican ends up in a steel basket.
Sometinmes you must storm the Bastel , but I am not holding my Breath.