While many will be fixated on the latest soap-opera installments that politics now regularly yields, such as the outrageous behaviour of Trump at the G6+1, or the strange elevation to power of Doug Ford in Ontario, others are not so easily diverted, as these
letter-writers demonstrate:
As an atmospheric physicist and an active climate-change researcher, I find the conduct of the Justin Trudeau government in this regard disgusting and appalling. If we are looking for a visionary leader who would lead us from a fossil-fuel-based (and environmentally destructive) economy to a sustainable and clean low-carbon economy in Canada, then Trudeau is not that person.
When Trudeau was elected, there was a sense of hope in doing our part as a nation to really start reducing greenhouse gas emissions. I have followed the United Nations’ COP meetings with a great deal of interest, and Canada promised achievable objectives in the Paris Agreement. These objectives do not seem achievable now.
Kaz Higuchi, environmental studies professor, York University, Toronto
I find it appalling that the government is using taxpayers’ money to benefit a corporation. This makes me realize how influential the corporations really are and how insignificant are the voices of Indigenous people and the thousands of others opposing this pipeline.
How can the government turn a blind eye to the harmful effects this pipeline may pose? Oil spills are an inevitable consequence.
I wish there were some mechanism to determine how I want my taxes used. I am definitely not paying them so a corporation can build an oil pipeline to endanger the environment of a province with some of the most beautiful coastlines in the country.
Sneha Singh, Mississauga
Pierre Berton’s The Last Spike captured a moment when the Canadian government was in the railroad- building business. Now, Ottawa has entered its pipeline era. Will, at some point, Berton’s book get a sequel, perhaps The Last Spill?
Ken Luckhardt, Etobicoke
.. am I mistaken or was that a TransMountain gas pipeline that blew sky high in Kentucky the other day ? Brand new, 'world class' standards..
ReplyDeleteYou aren't mistaken, Sal, but please keep it under your hat. Those who question Trudeau's purchase are, by definition, impediments to "Canada's national interest."
Delete.. it does seem 'politics' politicians and their spokes persons and wanks are just becoming distorted media frontmen.. yes yes, we elect some of them.. but its now a talking point world, driven by the PMO, caucus, and mysterious backroom operators & a mutual agreement (excluding us) to do whatever they want..
ReplyDeleteAt the riding level.. we just don't count and its getting worse.. we vote, elect somebody based on faux policy or speeches or our odd beliefs and trust.. and we end up with a government that buys a pipeline 'In The National Interest'.. You know.. to 'save our environment' and be sold to cronies.. It was evaluated by Kinder Morgan at 550 million.. We (and I do mean we) paid 4.5 billion for it. Riddle me that !
Speaking of the riding level, Sal, last week I joined in a protest against the pipeline at my Liberal MP's constituency office. To no one's surprise, she wasn't there. No doubt Philomena Tassi was busy burnishing her bona fides with dear leader. I expect she feels she is meant for greater things than merely representing her riding.
DeleteI wonder if the neoliberals will ever realize that serving the special interest ahead of the public interest fuels populism that leaves the public so disenchanted that they're easy meat for manipulation by the first charismatic to come along? If there's one factor, more than any other, that is leading the decline of liberal democracy it must be neoliberalism.
ReplyDeleteNah, I doubt they will ever realize it, Mound. They are too fixated on the immediate rewards that captured governments offer.
DeleteWe become the victims of our folly -- over and over again.
ReplyDeleteWe certainly are a strange species, Owen.
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