Severn Cullis-Suzuki wants governments to force citizens to be good environmentalists.  I don't think she means green stormtroopers, but punitive taxation that forces rationing.  The problem for Cullis-Suzuki is two-fold:

1. A plan like that won't work unless the major consuming countries all agree to it.
2. Canadians know that a plan like that won't work unless the major consuming countries all agree to it.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:40 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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The "Anyone But Ignatieff" forces are lining up as the Liberal Party leadership race starts to take shape.  In 2006, StopIggy.com was well known, pleading for Liberal delegates to vote for Joe Volpe even.

Well, as the media is reporting that Michael Ignatieff is lining up key supporters, someone has registered StopIggy.ca.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 09:35 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Well, this came as a surprise.  The Liberal Party website thegreenshift.ca is now redirecting to Jennifer Wright's greenshift.ca.

Stephane Dion's carbon tax plan is well and truly dead.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 07:34 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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In the declaration by Dominic LeBlanc of his intention to run for the Liberal Party leadership, we see the end of a shift that Stephane Dion inadvertently started.  The shift is, of course, the green shift.

Not the Green Shift, Stephane Dion's ill-fated carbon tax plan. But the green shift, a movement in the Liberal Party away from environmental issues, leaving the Elizabeth May and the Green Party high and dry.

Maybe we should call it the anti-green shift.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 07:01 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Frankly, people opposed to the Conservatives just can't seem to accept that they lost an election.  The reactions range from wishful thinking to the deranged.  The thing that links them together is the notion that the Conservatives have to be removed from power, now, immediately, before they destroy everything.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 01:06 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Michael Ignatieff was easily one of the most polarizing candidates in the last Liberal leadership race.  A website StopIggy.com was dedicated to convincing Liberal delegates to vote for someone else.  Anyone else.

Well, in my normal scan of domain registrations, I spotted what might be a new Stop Iggy site. Or it might be a pro-Ignatieff site.  But whatever it is, it is a hint that the new Liberal leadership race is starting to take shape.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 07:36 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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David Suzuki is spinning around again.  This time he tries to explain himself in a full-length op-ed in the National Post.

He actually starts to come in, loud and clear.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 09:15 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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There has been a minor dustup this week when David Suzuki was quoted in a Thunder Bay media report as saying that the Green Party is preventing the adoption of environmental policies by major parties.

Nonsense, says the Green Party.

I've been misquoted, says David Suzuki.

Well, then David Suzuki seems to have been misquote more than once.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 02:25 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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It's a shame, because what David Suzuki didn't say made a lot of sense.  But a press release from the Green Party clears up the matter.

Sort of.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 06:18 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I asked the Green Party to respond to David Suzuki's comments that the Green Party is in the way of further political progress of environmental issues.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 01:42 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I've given David Suzuki a rough ride on this blog, and I'm sure he hasn't noticed it in the least.  But when he says something that makes perfectly good sense, I have to point that out too.

In this case, he says that the existence of the Green Party prevents any real action on environmental issues by governments.

Therefore, he concludes, the Green Party must disappear.

And he's absolutely right.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 08:28 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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This Thursday, the Liberal Party caucus will meet for the first time after the election disaster.  Down 19 members, the first order of business will be to approve the decision made by Stephane Dion that he stay on as interim leader.

There are so many reasons to consider that decision very carefully.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 08:58 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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This is a fait accompli, I expect, so just consider this an exercise in bean counting.  But Stephane Dion seems to have unilaterally put himself in the role of interim leader of the Liberal Party.

It's just not that simple.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 09:14 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Are we all staring at a major element of the Liberal Party leadership race and not recognizing it for what it is?

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:35 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Something just occurred to me.  Could Stephane Dion be planning to lead the Liberals through a second election?

Posted by: Steve Janke at 05:29 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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As we learn more about Stephane Dion, it has to be said that Canada dodged a bullet when the voters rejected the Liberal Party.

OK, so maybe it wasn't all that close when the results were tallied, but Stephane Dion's behaviour since the election loss begs an important question.  Just who thinks Dion would have made a good prime minister?  I mean, the guy's a nutter!

Posted by: Steve Janke at 11:31 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It is likely, it seems, that Stephane Dion will step down as Liberal Party leader on Monday, and an interim leader will be appointed in his place.

There are a lot of things the Liberals need to sort out. But there is one thing I think even an interim leader can make a decision on, a decision that I think the Liberals need to address immediately.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:54 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Perhaps the image that will remain best remembered as this past elections passes into history will be of Stephane Dion being interviewed by ATV's Steve Murphy.  The Liberal leader couldn't not understand the question, despite multiple attempts by Murphy and others to explain it to him.

His look of confusion while people tried to get him to understand a subtle but not too complex a question probably gave many voters pause to wonder just what sort of prime minister Stephane Dion would be in a crisis.

Dion's defenders and apologists claimed that CTV ambushed Dion by releasing the tape of do-overs.  Everyone gets do-overs in an interview, they claimed.

That's just spin.  Here's the truth.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 02:24 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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When CTV aired the botched Stephane Dion interview, many in the media expressed strong opinions about the decision.  Few stronger, though, than Andrew Potter of Maclean's, who called Mike Duffy a "despicable human being".

Well, that blog post is gone.

Update: Kady O'Malley's blog post in support of Andrew Potter is gone from Maclean's blog pages as well.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 07:35 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Liberal Party is broke.  The collapse in the popular vote means far less money coming in from the government.  Donations, which have been an anemic source of funds for the Liberals, will like drop even lower, and much of it will be vacuumed up by the leadership candidates from the last leadership convention, still struggling to pay off their debts.  That includes Stephane Dion, who will be quitting as Liberal Party leader.

With Stephane Dion gone, and money in such short supply, it is no surprise that the Liberal Party has dropped all official references to the Green Shift carbon tax.  It was costing them money in licensing to Jennifer Wright of Green Shift Inc.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 06:17 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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