Stephen Harper, Canada's Conservative party leader and prime-minister, has given Canada a nice international black-eye with his first move towards pulling us from the Kyoto accord. You can read the full story over here, but the crux of it is the claim that Canada should be given a break due to the fact that we are a world energy exporter. What? Given a break? Are you serious? Canada's carbon foot print is atrocious as is and we need a break because we export fossil fuels to the US and abroad?
You know what, how about we level even harsher controls on ourselves as a world exporter? Let's try and exceed Kyoto in every aspect. Create jobs where some will be lost. Turn those jobs into world leadership areas and export Canadian knowledge to combat global warming. Why not lead the race towards a cleaner future? Why not position Canada and Canadians to lead the world in reduction?
Obviously, money talks and vision is a thing of the past in modern governments.