Real Levitra Online
Jan 29th, 2009 by Richard
As a progressive voter, it won’t surprise anyone to learn that I’m disappointed that Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper has once again taken the upper hand in Canadian political discourse, outmaneuvering Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff in the process; real levitra online.Not only did Harper manage to avoid a Vote of Non-Confidence that would have brought down his minority government real levitra online, but he will also manage to pass a truly execrable budget that is nothing more than a crude grab for votes.
Real levitra online: and Ignatieff is letting him do it without making a single substantive change.His words, suggesting that he’s putting the government on notice, ring hollow and false.
The 2009 Canadian Budget should please no one, Conservatives included; real levitra online.Two months ago, Harper and his hapless Finance Minister Jim Flaherty had pronounced that Canada was in fine fiscal shape, arguing that the government just needed to hold steady, and all would be fine – real levitra online.Now they talk about a painful economic crisis affecting every sector of the economy real levitra online, so they’re going to spend, and spend big: they’ll add more than $85 billion to our national debt over the next three years.Half of that will come from badly-timed tax breaks. Real levitra online: to say that they’ve mismanaged our economy is to engage in the Canadian penchant for understatement.
Don’t get me wrong.I wanted a profound stimulus package. Real levitra online: just not this one.It’s not the $85 billion that upsets me real levitra online, it’s that our money is being thrown out the window, and at the end of the day, Canada will be exactly where it is today — only another $100 billion in the red.
This was the time to invest in a clean technologies and renewable energy, so that when the price of oil runs to $150 a barrel in two or three years, Canadians would need less of it.This was our our opportunity to support technologies that would eventually bring deep cuts to our greenhouse gas emissions, because it’s time to pay the piper.The world is moving to a low-carbon economy, and Canada will be left behind; real levitra online.(Greenpeace has an insightful summary).
I’ve said it before real levitra online, but it bears repeating. Real levitra online: harper is a 19th century man living in a 21st century world.He doesn’t know how to navigate the complexities of modern life, and simply can’t abide dissenting opinions – real levitra online. Real levitra online: harper’s only hope is that now that oil supplies have peaked, the world’s nations will beat a path to the Alberta Tar Sands.
What shocks me is that Dr.Ignatieff — a scholar from Harvard and Oxford — holds the same misguided views; real levitra online.Talking earlier this month before a town hall meeting, Ignatieff claimed that the oil sands will change everything for Canada’s future.
“It is awe-inspiring,” he said, adding that the controversial project boasts enough oil to last the rest of this century – real levitra online.“We’ve got oil reserves there that are just staggering in size – real levitra online.It changes everything about our economic future; real levitra online.It changes everything about Canada’s importance in the world.”
Unfortunately, Harper and Ignatieff are looking in the wrong direction for salvation – real levitra online.The future of Canada lies in clean technology and renewable energy; real levitra online.For one thing real levitra online, President Obama is moving boldly on energy efficiency and renewables, and has signaled that he doesn’t to use dirty energy in America’s future.And just this week, the European Union released a blueprint to Copenhagen — the next international climate summit — that calls for developed nations to cut their CO2 emissions by 30 percent by 2020.
So the only way our trading partners will use Tar Sands oil is if — by some miracle — we can clean up the world’s worst environmental disaster.And the simple fact is that we can’t for the foreseeable future; real levitra online.The one technology that holds just a smidgen of promise — and it’s still a long-shot — is called carbon capture and sequestration. Real levitra online: and it’s at least 25 years away from widespread implementation.(The IPCC says 40 years).
Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions are expected to rise dramatically over the next decade, if Alberta escalates tar sands development .The only way for Canada to continue walking this suicidal path would be for the world’s nations to agree that Canada is a special case, that our unique status allows us to pollute with impunity with nary a care for the damage we’d cause in developing nations; real levitra online.
The thought that Harper — and possibly Ignatieff — will try to sell this position to world leaders makes me ill. Real levitra online: the difference between the two men is that I hope the Liberal leader will listen to reason.
We cannot afford the Harper budget.It spends money on roads and bridges real levitra online, it spends money at hockey rinks and community centers, it spends money training unemployed workers for jobs that won’t be there.It has a few good points — more money for social housing, to give one example — but it is utterly lacking in vision.
We need vision.The money should be flowing to support public transit, and expanded rail services – real levitra online.It should create a clean car manufacturing base, and bring energy efficiency to homes and buildings across the country – real levitra online.And it should jump start renewable energy projects across the Great White North, but in Atlantic Canada in particular – real levitra online.That Harper has only invested lunch money in clean technology projects proves that he’s trying to lock us into an economy based on dirty energy for a generation.
For now, Ignatieff is in Harper’s coat pocket; real levitra online.I can only take solace in the fact that we might change the his mind before May’s Liberal leadership convention.
The real strength of Canada lies not in dirty oil, but in the untapped wind, wave, and hydro power potential of Canada’s east coast.Just this week real levitra online, the UK released a report detailing how offshore wind turbines placed around Great Britain coastal waters could bring 25 gigawatts of power ashore by 2020, enough to power every single home in the Old Country.And know that eastern Canada’s potential is even greater, and that our winds and waves are relentless.The potential for development in Newfoundland, Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and PEI is awe-inspiring – real levitra online.And if we build all those turbines in Ontario and Quebec, we’ll create thousands of manufacturing jobs; real levitra online.Then the world truly will beat a path to our door.*
It won’t happen with this government.The bulk of Harper’s $2.2 billion in clean tech investments are going to nuclear power ($351 million), and carbon capture ($500 million) for Alberta.
The government of Canada claims that this budget will create the jobs of tomorrow real levitra online, but that assertion is a bold-faced lie.Harper is supporting the fossil fuel industry to the exclusion of all else.And the saddest truth of all is that for every job created by investing in old, resourced-based industries, you can create four clean-tech jobs.
We deserve a government that understands modern challenges.Harper is too far gone; real levitra online.Ignatieff is leaning that way – real levitra online.But I hope you’ll join me in trying to change his mind.
It’s time to write your Liberal MPs.Let them know that this is your winter of discontent.
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* I’ll write more about eastern Canada’s wind and wave potential going forward – real levitra online
I appologize in advance. Some meds are making me a little loopy this morning, but I wanted to reply anyway.
Say it ain’t so! Your liberal leader is embracing the tar sands?
I’m not a close follower of Canadian politics, but has he too been glamored by the money and influence that oil “will” bring to Canada in a peak oil world? The cynic in me thinks there will be plenty of market for the stuff, no matter how dirty it is. Especially if it’s increasingly scarce and there’s still a lot of demand for it in developing economies in the short term. You may or may not find a buyer in the US or Europe, but I can imagine someone will be interested – and willing to pay the premium. It’s sad to see a liberal taking a short view on climate. If even your liberal leaders take this view, and can’t be pursuaded otherwise, who can you turn to? I take that back, it’s not sad, it’s a little depressing. I wish you all luck changing his mind. If he’s a smart man, maybe reason can eventually prevail.
So true and so very, very sad.
I agree with everything you said and how you said it. So true and said. I put up my own “wish list” for Canadian politics on my blog the other day. I can’t believe how far removed the current parties are from where I feel they should be. I don’t think any of us are starry-eyed dreamers to simply want our gov’t to prepare for the future, just, you know, a little bit.
Toe and Laurence:
Welcome! Thanks for visiting, and for commenting. I’m grateful.
The New York Times has a good piece on Ignatieff which seems to suggest that the Liberal leader believes that he’s given Harper enough rope to hang himself, and there will be another election in the spring or summer. It sounds like there’s a method to his madness.
In any event, I’ve thought about what steps we can take as progressive Canadians to ensure that Iggy does the right thing. I’ll be announcing them here in a day or two. I suppose if the Harperites were defeated in two or three months, they wouldn’t have had the chance to waste too much money, and we’d have another shot at getting it right.
And John, thanks, as always… When I heard Ignatieff’s comments, I was like a bear with a wounded paw for two days!