Very few people realize that the reason we have Stephen Harper and his Conservative Reform Alliance Party in power is because of Jack Layton and a deal with the devils that has haunted Canada for the past seven years.
After a summer of traveling north of Superior and visiting my eldest son in South Korea, I returned home to Canada to find that, in the face of increasing opposition, Prime Sinister Stephen Harper had quietly proclaimed that "science" would determine the fate of the Northern Gateway Pipeline.
I wondered for a moment if I had missed a convergence of heavenly bodies and the dawning of a new age. Alas, it turned out to be merely more political greenwash on a done deal. You see, the only science that Mr. Harper has applied to any environmental issue has been the "science" of economics.From the early days when he first took office and shut down the One Tonne Challenge and the Environment Canada website so it could be rewritten in his image, to the current lobbying he is doing on behalf of the oil and gas industry, Stephen has consistently ignored any science other than economics. Continue reading
After a recent post, I was asked if I were anti-hunting, and my answer was a clear, "NO." I will ensure that my soon-to-be teenager is skilled in marksmanship with both gun and bow and arrow, and knows how to fish with rod and net. I will ensure that hunter safety trainlng is part of his curriculum for the twenty-first century. I will teach him that if he ever needs to take the life of an animal for food, that he will do it quickly, skillfully and respectfully. But under no circumstances do I support trophy hunting. Big boys with big guns and bigger egos.
Dedicated to an amazing young woman.
June 11, 2012
It was twenty years ago when I heard a speech that rocked my soul. It was delivered by a 13 year old girl to an audience of the old boy's club at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. I have quoted it in every speaking engagement I have given since that day. It is the most pure and honest appeal for environmental literacy that has ever been spoken. I repeat it here, twenty years later. NOTE: at the next Summit in Africa, Severn walked away from the main conference, ashamed that corporate interests Continue reading
What a difference a parliamentary democracy makes.
Only one week after the debacle that was the federal budget process, the Ontario government tried the same thing, using the same language. "It's all about balancing the budget, growing the economy, and creating jobs." It certainly isn't about environmental security, social justice, or economic equity.