I am responding to an editorial published on April, l9,20I2 in the Citizen by Rodney Venis.
Venis takes issue with MP Dick Harris for having suggested that our Conservative government cares about the environment, and in his colourful language suggests that Harris in having a Category 3 hissy fit, and playing the part of an ungainly flea bitten mongrel on its hind legs.
He then gives us a list of statistics about how far behind other nations we are in bringing greenhouse gas emissions down, and that some environmental group has given us the fossil award. Furthermore, he says that we have joined the U.S. and abandoned the Kyoto Protocol. He suggests that we could at least muster the feeble lip service its Liberal predecessors paid to green issues.
Chretien signed the Kyoto agreement then carried on polluting, and brought greenhouse gas omissions up about 25 per cent while the Liberals were in power
A short timeago, it was reported in the National Post that Canada's greenhouse emissions have dropped, an achievement that has happened undera Conservative government.
Harper was right in pulling out of the Kyoto agreement, considering the U.S., our greatest trading partner, has not signed onto it. Had we implemented Kyoto, our industries would become unable to compete in the North American market, causing massive unemployment in Canada, and Venis might even lose his job.
It appears that Venis lacks understanding about how things work in the real world. Canada is a large, cold, country, that ships raw products that fuel industries in other countries. Transporting these products causes emissions of greenhouse gases, as does our need for heat in winter.
We should be thankful that our government has not rushed into destroying policies, to comply with an unrealistic Kyoto agreement signed by our previous government.
Sven Serup
Prince George
