Sat 5 Dec 2009
Why All The Attention?
Posted by Canada / diamondone1999 under Balkers
[7] Comments
I find it very curious that in the last couple of months Americans are finding it necessary to tell Canadians how to run their country. First it was Michael Moore telling us that we are ruining our Health Care system….then Al Gore telling us that the “Alberta Oilsands jeopardize the survival of our species” and now the worst of all…..Sarah Palin saying “Canada needs to dismantle its public health-care system and allow private enterprise to get involved and turn a profit.”.
The only comment above that doesn’t surprise me is Palin….. I expect comments from her to be out in left field. So what has changed – ususally Americans don’t even know who we are or even care what we do…… Is it the Health Care debate going on…… is it that they don’t feel they can change their own country? Does it have to do with us pulling out of Afganistan in 2011?
Meanwhile the US will continue to be our largest energy and water consumer…… Go figure!
Welcome to Balkingpoints diamondone1999! Nice to have another Canadian onboard.
Americans know that Canada has always been the best of neighbors and allies, of course. It’s decision to leave Afghanistan has received scant coverage in the U.S. It routinely joins UN or NATO efforts as it did there, and prior to that in Bosnia.
Most Americans have figured out as well, that Palin is a mental lightweight. Only a dunce would seriously suggest replacing a successful system with a failed one…
(Btw, you’d be amazed at the number of Americans duped into believing that Canadians have to wait months for routine medical care… ;^)
There has definitely been additional attention towards Canada during the Dark Ages debate over insuring all Americans. Lots of persons taken in by status quo propaganda from the GOP and health insurance giants, have tried to smear the Canadian Single Payer system as well as the also-successful NHS of the UK.
But the fact that our system remains the First World’s worst, wins those debates in any case. We’re going to get a stupid, overpriced reform that amounts to a windfall for those insurers – but all Americans will finally be able to get health insurance. (After we figure out in 20 years how wasteful that system is, we’ll adopt Single Payer).
Until your Balk I didn’t realize Al Gore had been on Canada’s case. Then a Google took me to this gem;
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The Urgent Threat to World Peace is … Canada
The harm this country could do in the next two weeks will outweigh all the good it has done in a century
By George Monbiot. Published in the GuardianUK 20th November 2009
When you think of Canada, which qualities come to mind? The world’s peace-keeper, the friendly nation, a liberal counterweight to the harsher pieties of its southern neighbour, decent, civilised, fair, well-governed? Think again. This country’s government is now behaving with all the sophistication of a chimpanzee’s tea party. So amazingly destructive has Canada become, and so insistent have my Canadian friends been that I weigh into this fight, that I’ve broken my self-imposed ban on flying and come to Toronto.
So here I am, watching the astonishing spectacle of a beautiful, cultured nation turning itself into a corrupt petrostate. Canada is slipping down the development ladder, retreating from a complex, diverse economy towards dependence on a single primary resource, which happens to be the dirtiest commodity known to man. The price of this transition is the brutalisation of the country, and a government campaign against multilateralism as savage as any waged by George Bush.
Until now I believed that the nation which has done most to sabotage a new climate change agreement was the United States. I was wrong. The real villain is Canada. Unless we can stop it, the harm done by Canada in December 2009 will outweigh a century of good works.
In 2006 the new Canadian government announced that it was abandoning its targets to cut greenhouse gases under the Kyoto Protocol. No other country that had ratified the treaty has done this. Canada was meant to have cut emissions by 6% between 1990 and 2012. Instead they have already risen by 26%(1).
It’s now clear that Canada will refuse to be sanctioned for abandoning its legal obligations. The Kyoto Protocol can be enforced only through goodwill: countries must agree to accept punitive future obligations if they miss their current targets. But the future cut Canada has volunteered is smaller than that of any other rich nation(2). Never mind special measures; it won’t accept even an equal share. The Canadian government is testing the international process to destruction and finding that it breaks all too easily. By demonstrating that climate sanctions aren’t worth the paper they’re written on, it threatens to render any treaty struck at Copenhagen void.
After giving the finger to Kyoto, Canada then set out to prevent the other nations from striking a successor agreement. At the end of 2007 it single-handedly blocked a Commonwealth resolution to support binding targets for industrialised nations(3). After the climate talks in Poland in December 2008, it won the Fossil of the Year award, presented by environmental groups to the country which had done most to disrupt the talks(4). The climate change performance index, which assesses the efforts of the world’s 60 richest nations, was published in the same month. Saudi Arabia came 60th. Canada came 59th(5).
In June this year the media obtained Canadian briefing documents which showed that the government was scheming to divide the Europeans(6). During the meeting in Bangkok in October, almost the entire developing world bloc walked out when the Canadian delegate was speaking, as they were so revolted by his bullying(7). Last week the Commonwealth heads of government battled for hours (and eventually won) against Canada’s obstructions. A concerted campaign has now begun to expel Canada from the Commonwealth(8).
In Copenhagen next week, this country will do everything in its power to wreck the talks. The rest of the world must do everything in its power to stop it. But such is the fragile nature of climate agreements that one rich nation – especially a member of the G8, the Commonwealth and the Kyoto group of industrialised countries – could scupper the treaty. Canada now threatens the well-being of the world.
Why? There’s a simple answer. Canada is developing the world’s second largest reserve of oil. Did I say oil? It’s actually a filthy mixture of bitumen, sand, heavy metals and toxic organic chemicals. The tar sands, most of which occur in Alberta, are being extracted by the biggest opencast mining operation on earth. An area the size of England, of pristine forests and marshes, will be dug up, unless the Canadians can stop this madness. Already it looks like a scene from the end of the world: the strip-miners are creating a churned black hell on an unimaginable scale.
To extract oil from this mess, it needs to be heated and washed. Three barrels of water are used to process one barrel of oil(9). The contaminated water is held in vast tailing ponds, some of which are so toxic that the tar companies employ people to scoop dead birds off the surface(10). Most are unlined. They leak organic poisons, arsenic and mercury into the rivers. The First Nations people living downstream have developed a range of exotic cancers and auto-immune diseases(11).
Refining tar sands requires two to three times as much energy as refining crude oil. The companies exploiting them burn enough natural gas to heat six million homes(12). Alberta’s tar sands operation is the world’s biggest single industrial source of carbon emissions(13). By 2020, if the current growth continues, it will produce more greenhouse gases than Ireland or Denmark(14). Already, thanks in part to the tar mining, Canadians have almost the highest per capita emissions on earth, and the stripping of Alberta has scarcely begun.
Canada hasn’t acted alone. The biggest leaseholder in the tar sands is Shell(15), a company that has spent millions persuading the public that it respects the environment. The other great greenwasher, BP, initially decided to stay out of tar. Now it has invested in plants built to process it(16). The British bank RBS, 70% of which belongs to you and me (the government’s share will soon rise to 84%), has lent or underwritten £8bn for exploiting the tar sands(17).
The purpose of Canada’s assault on the international talks is to protect this industry. This is not a poor nation. It does not depend for its economic survival on exploiting this resource. But the tar barons of Alberta have been able to hold the whole country to ransom. They have captured Canada’s politics and are turning this lovely country into a cruel and thuggish place.
Canada is a cultured, peaceful nation, which every so often allows a band of rampaging Neanderthals to trample all over it. Timber companies were licensed to log the old-growth forest in Clayaquot Sound; fishing companies were permitted to destroy the Grand Banks: in both cases these get-rich-quick schemes impoverished Canada and its reputation. But this is much worse, as it affects the whole world. The government’s scheming at the climate talks is doing for its national image what whaling has done for Japan.
I will not pretend that this country is the only obstacle to an agreement at Copenhagen. But it is the major one. It feels odd to be writing this. The immediate threat to the global effort to sustain a peaceful and stable world comes not from Saudi Arabia or Iran or China. It comes from Canada. How could that be true?
© 2009 Monbiot.com. Don’t repost on Balkingpoints…
George Monbiot is a Brit and attempts obviously to balance a pervailing view of a docile Canada, against a few current policies. Most of these sorry practices would change straight away with a non-Stephen Harper government.
I pin most of this on the Conservatives also. We’ve been in the economy downturn with the rest of the world and paying most of our attention there. So that has given Harper some cover to start acting like his godfather George Bush!
Here is a piece from Canadian Press which backs that up Pat –
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Harper lays low amid high hopes for climate deal in Copenhagen
1 hour, 54 minutes ago
By Steve Rennie, The Canadian Press
Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrives in Copenhagen, Denmark for the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference on Thursday Dec. 17, 2009
COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Stephen Harper kept a low profile on his first day at the Copenhagen climate summit, turning down an opportunity to speak to the gathering, amid high hopes for a breakthrough over a $1-trillion American plan.
The prime minister hobnobbed with other leaders at a royal dinner hosted by the queen of Denmark, passing up the chance to deliver Canada’s address to the UN climate talks late Thursday. Instead he delegated the job to Environment Minister Jim Prentice.
A number of other leaders also opted to break bread with Danish royalty instead of addressing the conference. But they were reminded of the business at hand when a pair of Greenpeace activists crashed the banquet, unfurling two banners reading “Politicians Talk, Leaders Act” before they were dragged from the hall by security guards.
Prentice’s three-and-a-half minute speech reiterated many of the Conservative government’s stated positions on climate change. They include the contentious notion that any deal in Copenhagen should replace the Kyoto Protocol, rather than the complementary “Kyoto-plus” option supported by developing countries.
“Our actions to address climate change take into account our large, diverse landmass, our growing population and the importance of our energy sector for meeting global demand,” Prentice said.
“Our approach also reflects the strong economic ties between Canada and our neighbour the United States, and the need to ensure our actions are aligned with our continental partners.”
He spoke just after midnight local time at the Belle Centre conference hall where the climate talks are being held.
Prentice’s speech is unlikely to ease criticism from developing countries and environmentalists who accuse Canada of failing to make concessions to help reach a deal – and of relinquishing its historic role as a progressive on the world stage.
His address came after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered to help raise $100 billion a year for the next decade to help the most vulnerable nations cope with a warming planet.
That includes an unspecified American contribution which would include mix of public and private money. But there’s a couple of catches: countries must agree to a climate deal in Copenhagen, and all must agree to “transparency” in reporting and verifying cuts to greenhouse gases.
The latter condition was clearly directed at China, which has balked at what it sees as an intrusion on its sovereignty.
Clinton said lack of transparency is a “deal breaker” and insisted: “There shall be a transparency requirement.”
“It would be hard to imagine, speaking for the United States, that there could be the level of financial commitment that I have just announced in the absence of transparency from the second-biggest emitter – and now I guess the first-biggest emitter – and now nearly, if not already, the second-biggest economy.”
China’s vice-foreign minister, He Yafei, called the offer a “good first step.” He said China is ready for “dialogue and co-operation” on its emissions actions “that is not intrusive, that does not infringe on China’s sovereignty.”
Prentice said Canada is ready to contribute to a climate-aid fund, but wouldn’t speculate on a number. He said Canada would open its books and he expects China to do the same once a climate deal is signed.
“I don’t think it’s a question of a phasing-in of those arrangements,” he said earlier Thursday. “Rather, it’s a question of an agreement that has to apply to all major emitters, and has to have transparency as a fundamental principle of it.
“Transparency isn’t something that can be phased in. And so we are interested in measurement arrangements, reporting arrangements, verification arrangements that withstand scrutiny from the outset.”
The U.S. offer was aimed at breaking a deadlock as the climate talks head into their final day Friday. There have been major disagreements between rich and developing countries on greenhouse-gas cuts and aid to poor countries most affected by climate change.
The U.S., Canada, the EU and others insist that developing countries – especially big emitters like China and India – must be full partners in any pact to reduce emissions. Developing countries counter that rich nations can afford to do more.
Leaders from over 100 countries – including Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama – were arriving in Copenhagen for the summit’s final hours. It’s hoped the leaders’ presence will push some sort of a deal across the finish line.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd showed his frustration Thursday over what he called an “avalanche of procedural interventions” that have stalled the talks.
“I fear a triumph of form over substance. I fear a triumph of inaction over action,” he said. “Let us instead as leaders resolve to decide for the future, not simply to defer the future.”
The UN’s top climate official announced Thursday that the talks would continue along two tracks: one for countries that signed the Kyoto Protocol and another for those that didn’t. That’s despite calls from Canada and other rich nations to mothball Kyoto in favour of a new climate deal.
The Harper government’s preference was to roll all or parts of Kyoto into a new climate deal that includes all the big polluters, namely the United States and China. The developing world wants countries that ratified Kyoto – including Canada – to stick to their commitments.
Canada leads the pack in Fossil of the Day awards, a dubious citation bestowed by environmental groups to the daily climate laggard. And provincial leaders, notably Quebec Premier Jean Charest, have assailed Ottawa for not doing enough to get the country’s emissions under control.
Environmental groups, opposition MPs and some European countries complain Canada’s targets for emissions cuts aren’t steep enough. The Conservatives aim to lower Canada’s greenhouse gases 20 per cent from 2006 levels by 2020 – well short of Canada’s Kyoto commitments.
The Conservatives counter that achieving Canada’s Kyoto commitments now would batter the economy because of years of inaction by their Liberal predecessors.
Copyright © 2009 Canadian Press. Don’t repost on Balkingpoints…
Well Michael Moore would like to see the two tiered system of health care in Cuba introduced everywhere. Where the elite get the best care and the rest of the population get hospitals of lesser quality (to be very nice).
As for Al Gore and the bounty full of lies that issues from his mouth on a daily basis. He will quickly lose his focus and scorn some other undeserving entity while he keeps making billions off of being Green through government subsides.
Then Palin she is looking for her footing after quitting her job and prepping for a run at the White House. She will not get it but she can dream. At least she will now be able to afford the clothes she was demonized be the left for wearing.
We have been holding up your health care system as the way to go or not to go for several years now. We should probably focus on running our country better before we start giving hints of how to run other countries.
And yes, pulling out of Afghanistan did ruffle a few political feathers. You have done it before and you will do it again.
Moore probably believes everyone should have medical insurance. We passed that moral test years ago in Canada, and got it done for our people. Whilst conservatives in the U.S. had people snowed for decades about how the “market” would take care of it all!
Insurers made billions during that time insuring well people, and using every trick to exclude the sick who needed them most. Which amounts to blood money.
It’s completely a moral issue like I said. And Americans still spent more than anyone else per capita, by far. Which makes the American system a form of corporate welfare. Nice gig, just don’t look in the face of those millions you’ve denied adequate medical care!
Republicans went ballistic to shut down all proper reforms for decades, so these criminals could profit. Pure and simple.
And if “tort reform” and inter-state competition was all it took, why did Republicans fail to fix that for 20 years of Reagan and Bush presidencies? Red herrings for the gullible, nothing more.
Here is a link American conservatives hate, that Roy or Jeff have posted before. It is Cigna VP turned whistleblower Wendell Potter, under oath, spilling the beans on the corrupt health insurance industry in America:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07312009/profile.html
I’m glad to see other countries taking note of Canada!! And I’m very proud that our government has fought this “Global Warming” fraud!!! It’s time to drop this topic as we now know those trying to force this upon us were fudging the numbers for years and lying while trying to rig the media to go their way!!
However, Liberals will never give up a topic which could provide them with so many billions to line their pockets. Al Gore has made a ton of money for selling snake oil fear!
If Canada is responsible for failure at Copenhagen then GREAT! The Fossil Award is a great award to get, it means we are not stupid enough to blindly follow Liberals and socialists as they try to get into out pants for our money.
In due time the world will thank us for dragging our feet!!! Never give into this stupid set of ideas!!