December 15, 2011

Thoughts on Canada Quitting Kyoto

Canada: still loving right.
I'm a little late on commenting on this one considering I'm Canadian and a number of sites and blogs already touched on the subject of Canada being the first country to opt out of the Kyoto accord, to the dismay of China and India (who never even signed on).  Being somewhat late to the game there's not a lot to add to the cheering of the withdrawal from the flawed accord and to add to the hope that there may be a domino effect for other countries.  

However, there's a number of moves the conservative Harper government has taken, is taking or plans on taking on in the future. That's where the exciting part of the Harper government is.  The Kyoto withdrawal is a small part of a bigger picture.

If you remember they were the first to walk out on Ahmedinejad's UN speech a while back.  They have worked to remove Canada's long gun registry, they have lowered Canada's Value Added Tax twice, they are abolishing the Canada Wheat Board monopoly, and have a been compiling a history of other conservative, pro-growth, pro-market, pro-energy, low tax accomplishments and agenda items.

Many people view Canada's conservatives as being left of conservatives in the United States.  We're not.  The Harper government has had to tread softly in the past as they've had minority governments.  Expect to see that change over the next few years as they now possess a parliamentary majority.  They nevertheless still have a long way to go to undo decades of Liberal party rule, interrupted by two parliaments run by a basically liberal Conservative government in the 1980's (take note Romney supporters, a victory can often to more far brand damage than the minimal good that it brings).

The last note I would make is that while the Conservatives will govern in a more conservative fashion going forward, and they do have a long way to go to be seen as conservative south of the border, when you look at Stephen Harper's conservative government, they are well to the right of Obama's Democrats in the U.S.  I would argue they are well to the right of Jon Huntsman and Mitt Romney as well. In Canada, that in itself shows considerable progress has already been made.

4 comments:

  1. What part of Canada are you in? My wife and I are planning on visiting BC this summer.

    Also, I wish PM Harper and the Conservatives got more news coverage down here. We don't hear very much about how things are going. We hear *way too much* about Merkel and Cameron and Sarko, etc, etc... but very little about our biggest trading partner and best ally. Rather annoying, actually.

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  2. With Harper having a majority politics might get a little more interesting.

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  3. Innominatus - I'm in the Toronto area. Outside of the liberal zone of the city. BC is beautiful though, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

    Canada is about as exciting as dry toast. Harper is the same. But dull doesn't mean insolvent or bereft of good ideas. Things going fairly well does explain the lack of coverage, but not entirely.

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  4. Anonymous - you might say more progressively conservative...

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Disagreement is always welcome. Please remain civil. Vulgar or disrespectful comments towards anyone will be removed.

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