You Can't Choose Your Family, But You Can Choose Your Friends

I suppose we should be getting used to being embarrassed on the world stage. Certainly, every time Harper travels, I expect it, but I do hope that this time there will be much more backlash.

We at home know that Harper doesn't have a policy worth anything, concerning the environment, GHG's, etc. Geesh, half his supporters still think that climate change is a myth. We know too that he's been crafting a strategy, that would give the image that he's doing something, when in fact all he's done push the solutions further back. Because we've been passive here, specifically in reporting what Harper is not doing, perhaps he thinks he has a pass. Perhaps because at the recent meeting in Australia, he was bolstered by his buddies, he thought he had a pass.

I'm not sure what encouraged him to say what he did today, but we've lost all credibility now. Harper chose his friends, Bush and Howard over the rest of the planet. Actually, he formally announced that he's joined the APP, as it's now called. That's the group that courageously came forward to proclaim that they'd consider aspirational targets, in the future. So firm, so definitive, such leadership...in other words a joke. These men, cater to business, contemporary business, over the future effects to those who can ill afford to have more adversity.

No doubt his base is cheering, but given the overall reaction at the UN, I don't believe they realise the import of his choice. He has now officially put himself in the same league as Bush, that being, a head of state who speaks, but no one listens. If he thinks, that on the world stage this behaviour will go unnoticed, he's not the intelligent guy he's portrayed to be.

Going back to my post on Flanagan's 10 commandments, my sense is that on many issues, the con's have come to power, albeit minority power, too late. They may have had a chance to completely dupe us, earlier on, but at this point, Bush and Howard have made clear how duplicitous their agenda is. In emulating them, Harper alone is responsible for the criticism that should come his way. The question is, will it?

Robert Fife, usually a Harper cheerleader, surprised me today. He actually said that when the heavy hitters, Schwarzenegger and the Secretary General of the UN were speaking on the subject of climate change, Harper was shuffling papers, yawning and generally not engaged.

He cares nothing about this subject of course, but I hope to see pictures to substantiate that tomorrow. Will we?

Thankfully, the youth of our country, are more astute than Harper:

Harper drew sharp criticism from two Canadian youths participating in the one-day event. They said the Conservative government's emission targets are way too low.
"I, for one, am sick of being ashamed of my country and its poor behaviour on the world stage," P.J. Partington of the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition told a news conference.
"The government keeps saying Canada's playing a bridging role in the negotiations, but with our current plan we're on the road to nowhere."
Catherine Gauthier, who told leaders the future is in their hands and that too many world capitals are "spinning" their positions, was equally scathing.
"Canada needs to step up our action on climate change or get out of the way of progress," said Gauthier, a member of the Quebec-based Environnement Jeunesse.
"Our current targets won't yield real action until I am about to retire, which is completely out of line with the urgency of the science. We cannot play a constructive role in the international negotiations with our current plan."
”There are spin doctors in certain capitals that will try to convince you otherwise with their ‘diplomatic breakthroughs,' ‘bridges' and ‘complementary processes.' But there is only one road to a safe climate, and it leads to Bali,” said Ms. Gauthier, 18, who has addressed previous UN climate-change talks.

Sad isn't it? We used to be respected on this planet. Harper's ideas and ideals are old. The world fell into a silence after 9-11, a silence that aided agendas such as his. We are coming out of that, at least those of us who didn't buy it in the first place and those of us who were suspect. Fear is necessary for these people to exist and thankfully at the moment, we are not ensconced in it. Will that shift? Perhaps. The real question is, if it does, will we now, at long last, cast a critical eye to expose the propaganda?

When you choose your friends, you should choose them carefully. Harper chose those to whom he was aligned. Apparently, he was unable to crawl out of his ideology, so he missed the fact that they are on the way down. Hitch yourself to a falling star? Yep, that's what our guy at the top did. A falling star is gripping, but only while it lasts. Harper has hitched himself to that star, as it fizzles.