We, as citizens, have to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds to protect the environment. It just happened in Ontario, where Highland Companies announced it was withdrawing its plan to build a massive open-pit limestone quarry in the rural countryside north of Toronto. People power won! And it wasn't the first time it's happened in Canada.

The presidential debate triggered flashbacks for me to February 8, 1989. Let me explain. That night, decades ago, another battle that then appeared to be of epic importance took place: a televised debate at Western University between psychology professor Philippe Rushton and David Suzuki.

Most people understand the concept of financial capital. We pay for things we find valuable. But how much is our natural capital worth? According to the David Suzuki Foundation's research, the 7,000-square-kilometre Ontario Greenbelt provides at least $2.6 billion in non-market benefits each year. We wouldn't let a bank get away with losing our life savings. We shouldn't let decision-makers off the hook when they allow our natural wealth to be squandered.

We need a balance between ecology and economics, between the effects of the tar sands and the money it makes. However, this approach does not conform to the narrow and myopic world view of the Harper Conservatives. The Conservative majority rests on less than 40 per cent of the vote, yet for them this justifies demonizing and dismissing the other 60-plus per cent.

TORONTO - The federal government is failing to take the lead on climate change while the provinces are trying to tackle the issue with a patchwork of ...

OTTAWA -- The Conservatives have taken their battle with environmentalists to new levels of lunacy, some groups said Tuesday, after a Tory senator sug...