Thursday, August 21, 2008

The latest from Dion's “Green by Association” Tour

The quickest route to reputation rehabilitation, your publicist will tell you, is association. In other words: be seen with the thing you want to be.

If you are a high school geek, be seen with the cool kids. If you are unethical, be seen at church. If you are Lindsay Lohan, be seen with … anyone who isn’t Lindsay Lohan.

That’s the advice the Dion Liberals are taking too.

Which is in part why whenever they talk about Dion’s carbon tax the first thing they mention the great success that carbon taxes have had in Finland and Sweden – forgetting of course to mention that revenue from carbon taxes in those countries are plowed into green investments, not pointless tax cuts.

But after years of “not getting it done” Dion needs to be seen with people / ideas / or giant power plants that do, which explains this entry in his itinerary today:

"TORONTO _ Itinerary for federal Liberal Leader Stephane Dion: tours Enwave John Street Pumping Station, followed by media availability (11 a.m., corner of Rees Street and Bremner Boulevard, behind Rogers Centre)"

For those who don’t know, Enwave uses cool water from the depths of Lake Ontario to cool Toronto buildings instead of less efficient air conditioning. That Dion would want to be associated with this project makes sense. As a common sense local solution that cuts energy consumption and fulfils a need, it’s both brilliant and visionary.

The problem for Dion is, it’s just one of the “common sense local solutions that cuts energy consumption and fulfils a need” pioneered by ... NDP leader Jack Layton. As his official bio says:

"Ten years after work began on the first BBP venture, Robert Kennedy Jr. helped Layton cut the ribbon on its most eye-popping project yet. Engineer Ian Tamblyn had pitched the idea: instead of burning fossil fuels to air-condition buildings, why not use cold water from the bottom of Lake Ontario? Layton convened a series of meetings, chaired an Investigation Group, and his firm conducted the key study integrating the findings for the project proposal. Later, back at City Council, he shepherded the project through the complex approvals process with then-Councillor and current EnWave CEO, Dennis Fotinos. Today, EnWave’s Deep Lake Water Cooling system is cheaply and cleanly cooling the equivalent of 100 office buildings in Toronto."

After years of inaction on the environment, when Liberals want to look green, they hug Jack Layton.

Which is kinda why New Democrats say people who want real solutions for the environment should vote for the guy with a solid record of delivering them, instead of the guy standing next to him.

13 comments:

James Curran said...

I thiink it's Jack who's actong green by association. EnWave was around long before Jack. http://www.enwave.com/history.php

Steve V said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Steve V said...

Jack Layton on Stephane Dion:

"But also a man who is, if I may say so across the partisan divide, distinct from his principal opponents in being a committed Canadian and a man of principle and conviction."

Now he's a craven opportunist, go figure.

Blogging Horse said...

James: Enwave may have existed but the project Dion stood in front of today - the deep water cooling station - was begun because Jack Layton and other visionaries rolled up their sleeves and got it done. (something Dion could have done with Kyoto when he had the chance, but didn't).

Steve: Doubtless Layton believed those words when he said them. He may still. It doesn't change the fact that Dion didn't care much for Kyoto when he was in cabinet (source: Christine Stewart) and now that's he's leader has stuffed his principles and propped up the Harper agenda for the sole reason that his polling numbers are poor.

And that just doesn't pass the smell test for progressive leadership.

Steve V said...

blogging

If that were true, why did the environmentalists like Dion? I mean, if he was doing nothing at the end, why the support? That doesn't pass the smell test. Hey, I didn't vote for them either last election, but Dion isn't responsible for the entire Liberal mandate.

rabbit said...

forgetting of course to mention that revenue from carbon taxes in those countries are plowed into green investments, not pointless tax cuts.

Well, I guess Dion could skip the tax cuts. Good luck selling it, though.

The point of the pointless cuts is so that the total tax burden is not increased. Dion probably feels this is necessary because trying to sell a tax increase is a real slog.

Blogging Horse said...

Steve: The environmentalists may have liked Dion as a person, but they didn't like his policies. About a dozen of them crapped on his "Project Green" Kyoto plan in 2005 when he was minister. (http://www.pembina.org/media/media-release.php?id=1137) So, for that matter did the federal Environment Commissioner, saying like Iggy "it wouldn't get it done."

Rabbit said: The point of the pointless cuts is so that the total tax burden is not increased. Dion probably feels this is necessary because trying to sell a tax increase is a real slog.

Yeah, that's true. So Dion's isn't a comparable at to European carbon taxes which DO plow revenues into green solutions. One more reason why Dion has stopped talking about emissions reductions at all.

James Curran said...

Yep. Environmentalists sure don't like Dion.

http://femmeverte.blogspot.com/2007/12/montral-2005-unfccc-video-retrospective.html

Jennifer Smith said...

Please, tell us just how far the NDP has managed to advance their agenda under the current Conservative government. Getting a lot of cooperation and compromise out of them, are you?

Having the best ideas in the world isn't going to do anybody any good while our country is being run by people whose philosophy is diametrically opposed to our own.

First, let's get rid of Harper and those who would drag this country backwards. Then we can go back to arguing over who has the best ideas for moving the country forward again.

Sean S. said...

So JS, does that mean your personally ask Kennedy not to run in his current riding....you know, to get rid of the Conservatives and all...or how about May in Central Nova?

Blogging Horse said...

Jennifer said: First, let's get rid of Harper and those who would drag this country backwards.

Absolutely! But if this is your opinion, how can you support a party led by Dion -- a man who has stuffed his principles and propped up the Harper agenda for the sole reason that his polling numbers are poor?

A growing number of former Liberal voters are planning to exercise the same "strategic patience" as Dion and vote NDP until Dion is out as leader.

Jennifer Smith said...

sean s. -
No, I am most certainly NOT suggesting that. Vote for whoever you like, run candidates in every riding, but for gods sakes stop trying to sink the boat! Because every time you take a pot shot at Dion and the Liberals, you're just shooting another hole in the bottom that will sink us all. Save it for Harper.

blogging horse -
And where exactly do you think we would be right now if Dion had 'stuck to his principles' and brought down the government a year ago, or six months ago? I can tell you - he would be the highly principled leader of the opposition in a majority Conservative government that would have carte blanche to bulldoze what's left of our democracy right into the ground for at least another four years.

Don't make me remind you what happened the last time a party leader 'stuck to his principles' and brought down a minority with no regard to the consequences. Thanks, Jack.

[breathe]

I'm sorry if I'm sounding snarky here, but I find these fights increasingly frustrating - partly because I HAVE voted NDP in the past and would happily do so again. Hell, philosophically I'm more NDP than Liberal when it comes down to it, but for a number of reasons I've decided to support the Liberals for the time being.

So this isn't partisanship or an attack on what the NDP stands for. I'm just terrified that all this bickering is only going to leave us in the same shambles as the U.S. finds itself in right now after eight years of right-wing rule.

(and IMHO, Dion is the least of our problems)

Malcolm+ said...

Jennifer, your position is fundamentally illogical because it presumes against all available evidence that the Liberals actually disagree with the Conservatives. They don't.

Now I grant you, the Liberals talk a good line on a range of issues. But politicans should be judged on their records, not their rhetoric.

As appalling as the Tory environmental record is, the Liberal record is actually worse. The Tory Clean Air Act is inadequate - but it is still better than anything we saw from the Liberals in 13 years in office. Rona Ambrose may have accomplished nothing in 11 months as Environment Minister, but Stephane Dion accomplished nothing in 19 months.

And it's not just the environment. It's the whole range of issues. The Liberals advanced corporate globalization. The Liberals gutted health care funding. The Liberals took us to war in Afghanistan. The Liberals curtailed civil liberties.

In 13 years, the Liberals advanced the right wing agenda farther than Brian Mulroney had ever dared or Stephen Harper could have dreamed.

Tommy Douglas used to tell a wonderful political fable about a place called Mouseland, where the mice went to the polls and threw out the white cats and elected . . . the black cats. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqpFm7zAK90

The difference between the Harper Conservatives and the Dion Liberals isn't that the former are right wing and the latter moderate. They are both irredeemably right wing. The difference is that Harper and the Tories admit it, while Dion and the Liberals lie.