Stephen Harper and the Battle of Kyoto

In 2002, Stephen Harper sent out a fundraising letter to the Alliance party members, asking them to contribute, so that he could fight against the Kyoto Accord.

Dear Friend,
We’re on a roll, folks!

But we can’t just relax and declare victory. We’re gearing up for the biggest struggle our party has faced since you entrusted me with the leadership. I’m talking about the “battle of Kyoto” — our campaign to block the job-killing, economy-destroying Kyoto Accord.

It would take more than one letter to explain what’s wrong with Kyoto, but here are a few facts about this so-called “Accord”: — It’s based on tentative and contradictory scientific evidence about climate trends.

— It focuses on carbon dioxide, which is essential to life, rather than upon pollutants.

— Canada is the only country in the world required to make significant cuts in emissions. Third World countries are exempt, the Europeans get credit for shutting down inefficient Soviet-era industries, and no country in the Western hemisphere except Canada is signing.

— Implementing Kyoto will cripple the oil and gas industry, which is essential to the economies of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.

— As the effects trickle through other industries, workers and consumers everywhere in Canada will lose. THERE ARE NO CANADIAN WINNERS UNDER THE KYOTO ACCORD.

— The only winners will be countries such as Russia, India, and China, from which Canada will have to buy “emissions credits.” Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations.

— On top of all this, Kyoto will not even reduce greenhouse gases. By encouraging transfer of industrial production to Third World countries where emissions standards are more relaxed, it will almost certainly increase emissions on a global scale. For a long time, the Canadian Alliance stood virtually alone in opposing the Kyoto Accord, as Bob Mills, our senior environment critic, waged a valiant battle against it. Now, however, allies are stepping forward

— eight of 10 provincial governments, and a broad coalition of businesses across Canada

— to help us fight the ``battle of Kyoto.” Jean Chrétien says he will introduce a resolution to ratify Kyoto into Parliament and get it passed before Christmas. We will do everything we can to stop him there, but he might get it passed with the help of the socialists in the NDP and the separatists in the BQ. But the “battle of Kyoto” is just beginning. Ratification is merely symbolic; Kyoto will not take effect unless and until it is implemented by legislation. We will go to the wall to stop that legislation and at that point we will be on much stronger procedural ground than in trying to block a mere resolution.

The Reform Party defeated the Charlottetown Accord in an epic struggle in the fall of 1992. Now the Canadian Alliance is leading the battle against the Kyoto Accord! But we can’t do it alone. It will take an army of Canadians to beat Kyoto, just as it did to beat Charlottetown.

We can’t stop Kyoto just in Parliament. We need your help at all levels. We need you to inform yourself about Kyoto, to discuss it with your friends and neighbours, and to write protest letters to newspapers and the government. And, yes, we need your gifts of money. The “battle of Kyoto” is going to lead directly into the next election. We need your contribution of $500, or $250, or $100, or whatever you can afford, to help us drive the Liberals from power.

Yours truly,
Stephen Harper, MP Leader of the Opposition

PS: The “battle of Kyoto” shows why the Canadian Alliance is so important to you and to Canada. All the other federal parties are supporting Kyoto (Liberals, NDP, BQ) or speaking out of both sides of their mouth (Tories). Only the Canadian Alliance is strong and fearless enough to block dangerous and destructive schemes like the Charlottetown Accord and the Kyoto Accord.

The "Battle of Kyoto". How odd. And I don't know where he got his facts, though it's pretty obvious that he simply made most of it up, rehashing the same arguments to fight against the carbon tax.

But who would have thought that he would find an ally in his "Battle of Kyoto" when he teamed up with the "socialists" to destroy this important treaty. I lost a lot of respect for Jack Layton when I heard this.

Then in October of 2006, Conservative MP Tom Lukiwski filibustered by speaking for almost 2 hours, to prevent the House of Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development, from studying a private member's bill to implement the Kyoto Accord.

The following month, then Environment minister Rhona Ambrose, attended an international conference in Nairobi, where she embarrassed herself and us by blaming the whole thing on the Liberals. Despite the fact that the Harperites admitted to fighting hard against any action on climate change. In fact, Stephen Harper had suggested that the whole thing was a hoax. An attempt to squeeze money from developed nations.

The Vancouver Sun gave Ambrose the "Underachiever of the Year" award.

So, when Canada goes to Nairobi to set the world right, we miss the high jump standard of a measly two feet, set by our pledge to meet Kyoto carbon emissions targets. Giving a major address at the UN conference on climate change, Conservative Environment Minister Rona Ambrose eschews stateswomanship and blames those darned Liberals, as if the world cared about Ottawa's parliamentary squabbles.

Ambrose will ensure her government does better than the Grits, by lowering that two-foot-high bar to two inches. Can't miss. Here we go. A thumpa, thumpa, thumpa, and jump! Ahhh shucks. We stumble and fall. Here we are, rated by European environmental watch agencies as 51st in the world out of 56 in the high jump to save the world from globally destructive climate change. And who does our team end up in muck with as we miss the bar? Geez, we barely beat number 52 -- Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan?!

And here we are five years later, and millions and millions of dollars poorer, and we still have no environmental policy. None. Zip, Zilch, Nada!