Stockwell Day's Sense of Humour Lacks Sense and Humour

As Canadians already know the Conservatives ideology limits their scope when it comes to just about everything of importance.

From ill advised tax cuts to limitless spending sprees, they are obviously just doing what wets their appetites, while leaving the rest of us hungering for a government with some grasp of on reality.

Perhaps one of the best examples of this is in relation to climate change, which is mistakenly referred to as global warming, giving us a false image of tropical weather and margaritas, and not the very real threat of the melting ice caps.

I'm not a scientist and neither is Stockwell Day, but I listen to scientists when they tell me that we are in the eleventh hour and need to act sooner rather than later.

Harper gambled that the issue would not be of great concern to us, but unfortunately for him, Canadians are much smarter than he'd like us to be.

His choices for environmental ministers just go from bad to worse, but when key cabinet ministers in his government scoff at the proven scientific knowledge of an environment in peril, what hope to we have?

They keep telling us they've got a handle on it, but in a silly little letter to his constituents, Stockwell Day contradicts his leader, by exposing how little they care, that they treat it as a joke.

Day mocks Gore, climate change in article
December 11, 2006
Canadian Press

OTTAWA -- A November cold snap prompted Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day to dismiss Al Gore's climate change crusade in a website article brimming with mockery.

Day's letter to his constituents in the British Columbia riding of Okanagan-Coquihalla constituents last week opened with a shot at the former U.S. vice-president.

"Hey who knows, maybe Al Gore is right,'' Day wrote in the post dated Dec. 6.

"Maybe all my constituents living high up on the West Bench, or Lakeview Heights, or the hills of Logan Lake will soon be sitting on lakeside property as one of the many benefits of global warming.''

Gore has long campaigned against what he believes is government inaction on climate change. His documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, did record business.

Polls suggest the Conservatives' environmental package has been a dud with voters. Those same surveys suggest the environment could be a ballot-box issue.

When asked about the blog after question period, Day walked away from reporters and refused to comment.

Day wrote that a recent cold snap had him "begging for Big Al's Glacial Melt when the mercury hit -24.''

About 22 towns and cities in British Columbia "had broken all-time records for paralyzing frigid temperatures,'' Day wrote.

But the Minister for Public Safety said that "rather than feeling badly for yourself,'' constituents should consider the upside:

"For every hour it's that cold, millions of those nasty ravenous pine beetles who are destroying our forests are having their pesky little heads and jaws frozen, literally to death.''

John Bennett, senior policy adviser at the Sierra Club of Canada, said Day's comments are symptomatic of the government's position on the environment.

"What the blog demonstrates is what the government of Canada really thinks about climate change, that it is something to joke about, not something to take seriously and the policies of the government reflect that,'' he said.

Bennett added that the Harper government cut almost all climate change programs when it came into power.

The government began disassembling Canada's Climate Change Program last March when programs announced in Action Plan 2000 were not renewed.

Environment Minister Rona Ambrose introduced the government's Clean Air Act in October. The proposed legislation seeks to attack smog as well as some of the pollutants that cause global warming.

Liberal environment critic John Godfrey said Day's punch line was lost on him.

"The problem is that when a senior cabinet minister, even in jest, laughs away and dismisses the greatest challenge facing the planet today . . . and reduces it to, 'Well, it's snowing, therefore, where's the climate change, and even if there was climate change, maybe everyone would be happy because they'd have beach front property,' this is to trivialize, in an inappropriate way, a huge problem for the planet,'' Godfrey said.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May said she wasn't surprised by Day's comments.

"Mr. Stockwell Day sums up what David Suzuki said about parliamentarians, that they're all ignoramuses,'' May said in a telephone interview.

Day's comments reflect his ignorance about his own portfolio as minister of public safety, May said. "The most significant threat to Canadian security is climate change, not terrorism.''

Baird was no better and even tried to make us believe that Al Gore was on board with his 'plan', but ended up with egg on his face.