Stephen Harper is Going Green. Stop Laughing. Just Ask Monte Solberg

Though Stephen Harper could make an Olympic event out of avoiding the Canadian media, he will now and then talk to the foreign press, if he thinks we'll never find out.

During his recent visit to Korea, Bloomberg Press reported that he stated he would use his position with the G20 to convince nations to put the economy above the environment.

Of course, he has no intention of putting our own economic recovery ahead of his own self interests, but that's a story for another time (stay tuned. I'm working on an update with videos, songs and dancing girls. OK, no dancing girls, but there will be singing and video)

Three stories on our new green prime minister:

1. PM edging away from climate issue:

Tomorrow is the notional deadline for countries to fill in the blanks on the Copenhagen agreement on climate change by stating their targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

To be clear, each country can establish its own mitigation targets, and does not have to say how they will be achieved. Canada is expected to maintain its previously announced target of a 20-per-cent reduction below 2006 levels by 2020. There's no requirement to announce a longer-term target of, say, a 70-per-cent reduction by 2050 ....

2. And then former Reformer, columnist, and now stand up comic; Monte Solberg, is suggesting that Harper is now a conservationist. Hee, hee. He'll kill them with that act.

Harper government is a conservation leader

It is a little known fact that the Harper government has already made a great start on protecting some of our best habitat. Their $225-million Natural Conservation Areas Program has worked through the Nature Conservancy of Canada and dozens of conservation groups to preserve millions of acres of wilderness.

Every province and territory has seen important habitat receive protection, including the Great Bear Rainforest and the Nahanni National Park Reserve. In particular, vast swaths of the north have been set aside by the government to protect animals like the bowhead whale.

3. But the most disturbing story of all, comes from the CBC:

Lakes across Canada face being turned into mine dump sites:

CBC News has learned that 16 Canadian lakes are slated to be officially but quietly "reclassified" as toxic dump sites for mines. The lakes include prime wilderness fishing lakes from B.C. to Newfoundland.

Environmentalists say the process amounts to a "hidden subsidy" to mining companies, allowing them to get around laws against the destruction of fish habitat ....