Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

by Aaron Wherry on Monday, December 14, 2009 12:32pm - 29 Comments

Canada may be back. But we’re having a hard time getting a picture taken to prove it.

Tags: climate change, COP15, copenhagen, global warming, Jim Prentice, Steve Kelly, Steven Chiu

http://intensedebate.com/people/Thwim Thwim

Maybe he was just in the washroom.
http://www.shabasy.com Randy Ronson

Pathetic. Prentice should just head home.
kcm

The U.S. official said he didn't understand why the photograph was so important, to which Kelly replied "we were carpetbagged this morning by (environmental non-governmental organizations) with a false press release, I gotta change the story."

Is this what happens to you when you opt for a career in high level politics…first you lose your sense of humour, then you lose perspective? Maybe it's the other way around? There seems to be very little fun in politics these days.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Thwim Thwim

I think that word doesn't mean what he thinks it means.

kcm

Which one? Carpetbagged or fun? Sandbgged was what he was after i suppose.
http://intensedebate.com/people/LynnTO LynnTO

Well, maybe he thinks he's a Southern Confederate who just got looted by a Northerner.

Richard

In other words, the release from Prentice's office was no more truthful than the earlier hoax.

kcm

Yeah i missed that. I see Aaron didn't…" I gotta change the story." Sometimes life's ironic. Sometimes you give it a bit of help.
Dave

They may not have been truthful, but they were truthy.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

Ironically, it would make a good portmanteau.
http://intensedebate.com/people/danby danby

Why is Steven Chu against ~~the troops~~ working towards a solution to climate change
http://intensedebate.com/people/robert_mccl6309 Robert McClelland

I wonder if the snub was actually because of this.
“At the end of the day, if American consumers buy Canadian oil and consume it in the United States … the environmental compliance cost should really be absorbed on the United States’ side of the border,”–Jim Prentice.

kcm

It could also have something to do with this…

"We're generally seen here to be a non-participant, not an important player because our role has only been to obstruct progress," she said. "It's very sad compared to where we used to be in terms of our international reputation."
TedTylerEzro

Yep, you can't expect consumers to pay for the cost of carbon emissions. They generally don't see their own consumption as a problem. It is the fault of the oil companies!

Why should leaders of countries think any differently than their own consumer citizens?
Amateur Hour

Odd that Prentice is parroting Paul Martin's recent comments about the Oil Sands and US consumption.
Jan

Given Prentice's logic, shouldn't we be absorbing China's compliance costs for all that stuff we buy from them?
YSP

By the same logic, we in the developed world would be expected to absorb a pretty good chunk of China and Mexico's emissions.

Dee

Yikes. Even our closest ally doesn't want to be seen with us at an environmental conference. You're doing a heckuva job, Prentice!

http://intensedebate.com/people/danby danby

Still, John Baird is a pretty tough act to follow

burlivespipe

Next thing he'll start doing something about that deficit problem — but don't touch the PM's private dresser/psychic/confidence-realigner!
http://intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

"The Thick of It conforms to a popular impression, again a pretty well-founded one, that modern government is run by political apparatchiks who have no real clue what they are doing beyond trying to cover up massive incompetence and deceit. The interests of the country are always considered of secondary importance to those of the party. These are, of course, fictions; but because they contain more than a nugget of truth they feed into a wider cynicism about how we are governed." Daily Telegraph, Dec 14 '09

I read this earlier and thought it was appropriate. It was in article about how civil servants can regain trust of pols.

http://intensedebate.com/people/ChrisInKW ChrisInKW

It's been this way for a lot longer… watching a few episodes of "Yes, Prime Minister" certainly suggests so.
Amateur Hour

Jolyon, I agreed with you right up to the point where you included/indicted the bureaucrats. Yes, our governments spend a lot of time and money trying to sideline the policy makers and public service we already have. This is a particular trend amongst the Axis of Anglos. Tony Blair, for instance, was elevated to power and ultimately undone by his and New Labour's (talent for and) inability to distinguish between policy making and media relations. If a policy ran into trouble or didn't cause the public to think him a saint, it wasn't revisited on its merits … it simply needed to be repackaged and (groan) "re-messaged".

The main problem is that governments in power are now regularly trying to bypass and sideline the very law- and policy-making bodies and bureaucracies they are supposed to direct. Special advisors, Tsars, special commission, special masters, blue ribbon panels, Quangos, etc. are used as foils against Parliamentary committees, regulatory commissions, etc. So while your take on the trend is timely, you might want to correct your fire a wee bit.

http://intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

I don't believe bureaucrats are the main problem, I agree with your "Special advisors, Tsars, special commission, special masters, blue ribbon panels, Quangos" list, but they are part of it.

I will always take shots at bureaucrats because they are my bogeyman and irritate me beyond sense or reason.

http://twitter.com/andrewhorton @andrewhorton

How fascinating – the link is dead, even though the main TorStar Copenhagen blog shows comments (http://thestar.blogs.com/copenhagen/). Conspiracy? Or ineptitude?
knick

"I gotta change the story" – now there's a concept they've taken to an art form.

YSP

Apparently complex dialogue was too difficult, so they want to change it to a picture book.

Wascally Wabbit

The last time I heard the term sandbagged (which I agree is what I think Dimitri meant) was when I played golf regularly..and it referred to when an opponent deliberately gave the impression that his skills were far less than in fact they were…Seems like Dimitri was outplayed by a whole collections of sandbaggers – the climate change activists – the largest most populace provinces – the White House team…did I forget anyone? Oh yes – the Planet!
Wascally Wabbit

Sir Humphrey – as always – has something to say on the matter:-
skipping a few stages…
Stage four – Discredit the person who produced the report. Explain (off the record) that:-
1) He is harbouring a grudge against the Department
2) He is a publicity seeker
3) He is trying to get a knoghthood / chair / vice-chancellorship (I guess in Canada's case a Senate seat)
4) He is a consultant to a multi-national
5) he wants to be a consultant to a multi-national…

Heck – and this is re-usuable – Dimitri could churn this out next week about Colvin!