Coyne v. Wells on Jim Prentice, Danny Williams, and sacred cows

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 8:00 AM - 26 Comments

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Hey look: Prentice in Calgary

By Paul Wells - Friday, February 5, 2010 at 4:17 PM - 6 Comments

Many of you have already found my column from the print edition, in which I try to make sense of Jim Prentice’s Calgary speech. Much hilarity ensues. Okay, not that much.

Why Prentice took on the oil sands

By Paul Wells - Friday, February 5, 2010 at 12:07 PM - 112 Comments

It wasn’t quite Daniel in the lions’ den, but it had a whiff of Nixon to China about it. Here was a senior Conservative cabinet minister putting the boots, at least rhetorically, to Alberta’s oil sands.

“It is no secret, and should be no surprise, that the general perception of the oil sands is profoundly negative,” Jim Prentice said the other day. “That is true both within Canada and internationally.” The environment minister was speaking to members of the University of Alberta Calgary schools of public policy and business. Right there in Calgary. The belly of the beast. Well, it was the Palliser Hotel, so it was the fanciest part of the belly of the beast, but still.

In his next sentence, Prentice seemed uncertain where to put either blame for the oil sands’ image or hope for its improvement. “We need to continue the positive work of industry, with investments in environmental technologies that will show the world how environmental responsibility and excellence can be taken to new levels,” he said.

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The continental approach to energy and the environment

By Paul Wells - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 1:49 PM - 105 Comments

It’s going well.

'I gotta change the story'

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, December 14, 2009 at 12:32 PM - 29 Comments

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

Thinking through Canada's climate change position

By John Geddes - Wednesday, December 9, 2009 at 12:32 PM - 112 Comments

Yesterday I posted remarks from Environment Minister Jim Prentice at a news conference, in which I thought he framed the Canadian government’s position on climate change with admirable clarity. Prentice made three key points:

1)    Canada’s population and economy have grown too much since 1990, the benchmark year for the Kyoto climate change treaty, to expect steep emissions reductions in this country from that starting point;
2)    Compared to the European countries that are leading the push for tough emissions-reduction targets this week in Copenhagen, Canada is bigger, colder, and faster-growing—and therefore EU aims don’t make sense here;
3)     Canada’s government is not willing to sign on to any target that could only be achieved with “inordinate economic costs.”

Having let Prentice’s explanation, which sounded reasonable enough, stand for a day or so, here are some observations about his argument.
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Jim Prentice sums up Canada's climate change postion

By John Geddes - Tuesday, December 8, 2009 at 4:43 PM - 62 Comments

Here in Ottawa this afternoon, in the Museum of Nature’s mammals gallery, Environment Minister Jim Prentice announced a $5-million study into the feasibility of creating a marine conservation area in Lancaster Sound, the eastern gateway to the Northwest Passage.

I called some Arctic wildlife researchers to ask what the sound is like. They described icy waters and rocky islands astoundingly rich in sea life—bowhead whales and walrus, nesting black-legged kittiwakes and (my new favourite) thick-billed murres that dive so deep, up to 200 metres, in search of fish that sea-bird experts haven’t figured out how they do it.

Given that this is the opening week of the Copenhagen climate change conference, and that global warming is the overarching environmental concern in the Arctic, I took the opportunity to ask Prentice about the linkage. Doesn’t Canada’s stewardship of Far North territory like Lancaster Sound stand embarrassingly at odds with our laggardly position in negotiations toward an international climate change treaty?

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The Commons: Back to the future

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 8:51 PM - 23 Comments

The Scene. Michael Ignatieff stood with a slight smile. His side cheered, government members jeered.

“Welcome back!” chirped one.

Then to the question, which was, lo and behold, something to do with the environment and the need for urgent action against potential ruin.

“Mr. Speaker, for four years, the government promised a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” Mr. Ignatieff reported. “Today, the Environment Minister has once again postponed the announcement of any action until the end of 2010. We’re three weeks from Copenhagen. How can we protect the environment if the government takes no position?”

This was some riddle.

Up to answer was John Baird, an environment minister in a previous life.

“Mr. Speaker, this government is working constructively with our partners around the world to ensure that we tackle global warming and the challenge of climate change,” Mr. Baird declared. “What we will not do is make promises that we cannot keep.”

It is a testament to Mr. Baird’s abilities as a public performer that he did not here descend into giggles. Continue…

Climate change: weak words, strong pictures.

By John Geddes - Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 4:45 PM - 65 Comments

Environment Minister Jim Prentice’s remarks today to the effect that it will be years—years!—before the Canadian government implements regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions have to be crushingly discouraging for anyone who regards climate change as an urgent problem.

“The international policies, the North American policies, and Canada’s own policies, have to all fit together in a coherent way,” Prentice explained, “if we’re going to get the environmental outcomes we want and protect the economy as well.”

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Bring it on

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, November 13, 2009 at 10:35 AM - 115 Comments

National Post, November 5. Mild-mannered, absolutely. But Environment Minister Jim Prentice wants the world to know he’ll be no boy scout when crucial climate change talks convene in Copenhagen a month from today … In the end, it’s almost a guarantee that no matter what happens, Canada will be vilified on the world stage as an energy superpower that abandoned the Kyoto Accord and isn’t shouldering its share of carbon reductions. ”Well, if the price of having strong, capable, tough negotiators at the table is being singled out and given ‘fossil of the year’ awards, then so be it. Bring it on,”  Mr. Prentice told me, doing his best impression of not being a boy scout.

National Post, November 12. As the most middle-of-the-road federal cabinet minister, Jim Prentice was never apprehensive about appearing on CBC. But the environment minister turned down an invitation to appear Friday morning on CBC radio’s flagship show The Current for a very good reason: a hostile host. That would be David Suzuki, the wildly successful environmental crusader and perennial alarm-ringer, who has seen the end of the world coming under a variety of climate change scenarios … What bothers Minister Prentice’s people is how they’re being asked to appear on a national current affairs show where the host would be an obvious antagonist.

The Commons: In joyful strains then let us sing, Advance Australia Fair

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 5:44 PM - 17 Comments

The Scene. Like a young man on the verge of a break from school—and indeed the House will not be in session next week—the Prime Minister seemed lighter this day. Rising from his seat before Question Period, he stopped by to visit with John Baird and Chuck Strahl, the three demonstrably laughing at something or other the Prime Minister had to say. Returning to his spot, Mr. Harper chuckled with Lawrence Cannon about something on Jim Prentice’s BlackBerry.

Yes, indeed, all was fun and frivolous. And then Bob Rae stood up.

“Mr. Speaker, we now know that more than half of the vaccines that have been produced are in fact in storage and not in people’s arms,” the Liberal reported. “Experts are also telling us that the peak of the epidemic is expected to be at the end of November and not at Christmas, so I would like to ask the Prime Minister this: What exactly is going to change to ensure that Canadians in fact are inoculated before the end of November?”

The Prime Minister rose to respond, appearing largely unperturbed by Mr. Rae’s suggestion that something was amiss. Continue…

Before the yelling

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, October 28, 2009 at 11:15 AM - 16 Comments

As noted, the government is quite concerned that about a meeting between Jack Layton and a group of environmental activists that took place before Monday’s protest in Question Period. For the record, the NDP counters that Mr. Layton’s office had no knowledge of any intent to disrupt QP, that the meeting with Layton was open to media and that, to their understanding, some of the activists were to meet with representatives of other parties as well.

For whatever it is worth, Environment Minister Jim Prentice met with 25 members of the “Canadian Youth Delegation” on October 22. Pictures from that meeting are available on the ministry’s climate change website. Seated to Mr. Prentice’s right is the protester who we now know as Jeh.

Well, that's inconvenient (II)

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 6:44 PM - 4 Comments

Various jurisdictions have their doubts about the Harper’s government’s environmental agenda.

The numbers won’t add up in the Harper government’s proposed climate-change plan unless it fixes flaws that jeopardize the plan’s credibility, say some of North America’s largest provincial and state governments.

The Western Climate Initiative — a coalition of governments that includes Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba and California — says a draft version of a federal “offsets” system for rewarding green practices must be revised to prevent businesses from profiting from actions that don’t actually reduce the amount of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere…

The Pembina Institute, an Alberta-based environmental research group, said the proposed system would result in fictional emissions reductions in the same way that lax financial-accounting rules have created fictional profits. ”If the loopholes aren’t closed, actual emissions are likely to be millions of tonnes higher than the nominal level of a future regulated emissions cap,” said Matthew Bramley, director of Pembina’s climate-change policy.

Well, that's inconvenient

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 12:11 PM - 42 Comments

Globe and Mail, yesterday. Environment Minister Jim Prentice is playing down the climate-change pledges made Tuesday by Chinese President Hu Jintao at the United Nations, saying Beijing has yet to commit to clear targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Globe and Mail, today. A major prong of Canada’s climate change plan is so flawed that to pursue it now – with neither the proper science nor proper laws in place – would be “sheer folly,” concludes a new report. The risks of building a system to capture and store carbon dioxide underground include arsenic leaching into groundwater, unforeseen leaks, cross-border disputes and spiralling costs, according to a paper that will be released by the Munk Centre for International Studies Wednesday.

UPDATED: Whatever you do, don't look around the corner! – Not liveblogging Jim Prentice at the UN climate change conference

By kadyomalley - Tuesday, September 22, 2009 at 11:49 AM - 34 Comments

Huh. Well, that was odd.

ITQ was all ready to liveblog Jim Prentice’s conference call from New York City to discuss ” his participation at the United Nations Secretary General Leaders Summit on climate change.” But when she called in to register — less than five minutes before the call was scheduled to get underway — the apologetic, if slightly frazzled-sounding voice on the other end of the phone informed her that it had just –like seconds before — been cancelled without explanation.

Now, to be fair, the call might have been called off due to some sort of last minute timing conflict — maybe the minister is running late, or perhaps he wasn’t able to get to a phone since he was so busy explaining to everyone in earshot that Canada will have “bold and forward-looking climate change policies with respect to all sources of carbon emissions” by the end of the year.  Still, it’s hard to see it as a terribly auspicious omen as far as the prime minister’s dinner plans this evening.

UPDATE: Found him — or, at least, where he may, in theory, be later today. According to the official programme, this afternoon, Canada will take part in a roundtable co-chaired by Mongolia and the European Commission.

Also, you guys? I don’t want to needlessly alarm anyone, but a quick poke around the summit website reveals that Canada isn’t exactly taking on what you might call a major role at this event.

Not only is the prime minister not scheduled to speak at the conference itself, but he hasn’t even provided a video statement instead (insert Stephane Dion cameraman joke here). Instead, he’s apparently heading off for a meet ‘n’ greet with Mayor Bloomberg before the post-summit leaders’ dinner, where he once again won’t be speaking.

Which seems a little unlike him — I mean, ordinarily, this is a guy who relishes the opportunity to look all statesmanly on the world stage. Canada’s still back, right? Then again, this is one venue where the “stay the course” mantra that his government has adopted as its motto wouldn’t exactly fit with the overall theme.

Anyway, ITQ will keep you posted on further events — or non-events — as they happen. Or don’t happen. Man, this would be so much easier if she was in New York.

He is… the least uninteresting man in government

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, August 13, 2009 at 12:08 PM - 14 Comments

Jim Prentice canoes the Nahanni, drinking scotch and reading R.M. Patterson’s tale of murder, gold and frontier adventure.

This July, I canoed Canada’s “Dangerous River”—the majestic Nahanni of the Northwest Territories. I brought with me my dog-eared copy of R.M. Patterson’s Canadian classic of the same name. The Nahanni is described by many as the world’s best canoe trip. It was inspiring each night to pour over Patterson’s writings, comparing his observations to our own as we explored the geography and mythology of the great river that he chronicled more than 80 years ago … Dangerous River has now been restored to its shelf in my house—the most dog-eared, rumpled, scotch- and water-stained book in my library. It is also now the most loved.”

Environment Minister Jim Prentice recommends 'Dangerous River' by R.M. Patterson

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at 1:10 PM - 0 Comments

“This July, I canoed Canada’s “Dangerous River”—the majestic Nahanni of the Northwest Territories. I brought with me my dog-eared copy of R.M. Patterson’s Canadian classic of the same name. The Nahanni is described by many as the world’s best canoe trip. It was inspiring each night to pour over Patterson’s writings, comparing his observations to our own as we explored the geography and mythology of the great river that he chronicled more than 80 years ago. We experienced the Nahanni’s headwaters on the Britnell Glacier and the Ragged Range and we witnessed the towering majesty of the Cirque of the Unclimbables. As our canoe trip began, we encountered Virginia Falls, the ascending beauty of the Fourth, Third, and Second Canyons, the spiritual tranquility of the ‘Gate’ and ‘Pulpit Rock’ and finally, on the last day, the towering walls of the First Canyon. Throughout our journey, Patterson’s writings never failed us. Nor did his warnings of the dangers of the treacherous rapids of the Fourth Canyon, Tricky Narrows, or the explosive Cache rapids, now known as George’s Riffle. And, on the final poignant day, as we departed Deadmen Valley, our young guide Kaye Johnson was able to take us to the very remnants of the cabin where Patterson himself wintered and wrote this Canadian classic. Dangerous River has now been restored to its shelf in my house—the most dog-eared, rumpled, scotch- and water-stained book in my library. It is also now the most loved.”

Jim Prentice is Canada’s Environment Minister

Mitchel Raphael on stampede hockey

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, August 6, 2009 at 10:20 AM - 0 Comments

Jason Kenney moonlights as a hockey coach
Nothing says Calgary Stampede like a lively game of hockey. While the big summer festival was in full steam, Alberta Conservative MP Blake Richards organized the Wild Rose Hockey Challenge charity match between MPs and Alberta MLAs. Environment Minister Jim Prentice played centre. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney was one of the coaches. “He was a good motivator,” quips Richards, “not so good on the strategic plays.” The game included NHL pros Dana Tyrell, Zach Boychuk and Jay Rosehill, who just signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Richards says Rosehill was traded from the MPs’ team to the MLAs during the game because the MLAs were doing so poorly. In the end, the MPs won 17 to 13. The event raised $10,000 for victims-of-crime funds in Richards’ riding of Wild Rose. Richards is helping keep up the athletic reputation of the MP he replaced in the last election, Conservative Myron Thompson. “He was quite a ball player,” notes Richards of Thompson’s younger days. “He tried out for the New York Yankees. He could really hit.” Richards, who used to work for Thompson when he was an MP, says his old boss is now selling steel buildings for use in the oil patch and on farms.

Shannon Tweed’s parliamentary tour guide
When celebrity couple Kiss rocker Gene Simmons and former Playboy playmate/actress Shannon Tweed needed a tour of the Parliament Buildings, they were put in touch with Ottawa MP Pierre Poilievre, a 30-year-old conservative Conservative not exactly known for moving in rock-star circles. Tweed, a former Newfoundlander, had contacted Tory supporter and former Ottawa city councillor Linda Davis, a friend from the days when the actress was living in Ottawa. Davis hooked her and Simmons up with Poilievre, who took the couple to the library of Parliament and the House of Commons, where Tweed sat in Stephen Harper’s seat and Simmons sat in Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon’s seat. Later Senator Hugh Segal joined the group and gave them a tour of the Senate. The couple, who were being followed by video cameras for their reality TV show Gene Simmons Family Jewels, were also taken to Senate Speaker Noël Kinsella’s office. When Tweed saw the gilded mace, she quipped: “Oh, that’s where I left that.” Simmons thought it looked like “an old club.” Poilievre replied: “The Senate itself is an old club.” Poilievre says he was happy to help boost Ottawa’s tourism appeal by getting the sights of Parliament Hill onto a popular TV show. “I like Gene Simmons,” he says. “He’s a great entrepreneur.” Continue…

Stephen Harper's Top 5

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, August 6, 2009 at 1:52 AM - 28 Comments

La Presse discovers that the current order of succession should the Prime Minister be unable to fulfill his duties is as follows: Lawrence Cannon, Jim Prentice, Chuck Strahl, Peter MacKay, Stockwell Day.

Two years ago, when Kady looked at the list as it was then, the order of succession went Cannon, Prentice, Rob Nicholson, David Emerson, Jean-Pierre Blackburn.

Great hopes and aspirations

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, July 9, 2009 at 12:58 PM - 35 Comments

Jim Prentice seems not terribly concerned by the G8 agreement on climate change.

Asked which year would be used as a yardstick for emission cuts, Environment Minister Jim Prentice suggested on CBC this morning the G8 targets are merely “aspirational goals” and will not affect Canada’s climate change plans overall.

“We don’t need to change our policies,” said Prentice. “This is an aspirational goal of developed countries collectively to try to reduce emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. But it is an aspirational goal and a collective goal. Really, when you’re speaking of 2050 by that time, some of the significant technological changes that are necessary will have been made.”

Jim Prentice: Many meetings

By Paul Wells - Friday, July 3, 2009 at 3:49 PM - 48 Comments

The minister of the environment grants an interview to Policy Options magazine (link launches a .pdf). I was curious to see what he was saying about this “continental solution” to energy and environmental matters that we hear so much about from… well, from Jim Prentice. I actually don’t hear much about it from the Americans, with whom we share a continent but not, as far as I can tell, a policy on energy and the environment. Or even a desire to have a common Can-Am policy on energy and the environment.

Anyway, here’s the minister on cross-border relations. His comments come in two separate parts of the interview. First he’s asked about clean technologies, and he points out there are meetings on clean technologies:

I think it’s useful to come back to the Clean Energy Dialogue that President Obama and Prime Minister Harper agreed on. The President made his first international trip here. Three working groups were set up under the Clean Energy Dialogue, and the first of those deals with clean engine technologies and research. So on a scale that has never actually been achieved previously, we will be working together with the United States on these working groups, and one of them is very specifically focused on new technologies.

Then he is asked about greenhouse-gas reduction protocols and he says there are meetings on that too:

I’m under no illusions about how complex this is. And continentally, in particular, we’re working very closely with the Obama administration. I spent a lot of time with their climate change negotiator, Todd Stern. In the major economics forum, I sit at the table for all of those meetings. We’ve spent a lot of time with Lisa Jackson, the head of the EPA, Carol Browner, the President’s adviser on climate change and energy security, and others, including congressional leaders. So it’s coming together, but it is complex. And you know, I would point out that the Waxman-Markey Bill — I read in the Washington Post —is considered by many to be the most complex legislation that has ever been introduced into the House in the United States. The Bill is 1,000 pages long. It has over 100 amendments. There are eight subcommittees that have jurisdiction over its contents. And it’s been winding its way through the US system for months now. This is very complicated stuff, very heavy going. And there’s a need to pay a lot of attention to detail, or we will damage our industrial competitiveness, with no offsetting benefits to the environment.

So while he’s meeting Todd Stern, Lisa Jackson, Carol Browner and others, the Waxman-Markey bill passed the House, and you know, it’s a funny thing: I checked the Congressional Record, and during the Waxman-Markey debate nobody mentioned a continental policy on energy and the environment.

What’s most striking about Prentice’s remarks is how — no, not process-obsessed they are, not quite, because process obsession implies a certain level of disquiet and nervousness. There’s none of that here. The minister seems perfectly process-content. He sits at the table for all of those meetings. And when they pass a bill without mentioning him or the rest of us, he gets to read about it in the Washington Post. So everything’s tickety-boo.

Mitchel Raphael on biker MPs

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, June 18, 2009 at 5:00 PM - 2 Comments

Senator Nancy Ruth’s complaint

The gay advocacy group Egale held its first-ever big gala in Toronto’s Le Meridien King Edward Hotel to mark the 40th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in Canada, an event encapsulated by Pierre Trudeau’s famous line, “there’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.” Justin Trudeau was the keynote speaker. Egale’s executive director, Helen Kennedy, says the group has never had so many MPs at an event. Political attendees included Transport Minister John Baird, Liberal MPs Scott Brison and Mario Silva, former Liberal interim leader Bill Graham, NDP MP Olivia Chow and former Liberal cabinet minister Belinda Stronach. Conservative strategist Jaime Watt, who is chairman of the Navigator communications firm, was presented with the group’s inaugural Leadership Award for LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) human rights. Stronach was impressed by the way Watt and his partner raised his daughter Heather Watt from a previous marriage. “They were such great parents,” she says. Derek Vanstone, Jim Flaherty’s chief of staff, called Watt “a trailblazer who made it easier for people to be gay and Conservative, including myself.” Vanstone notes it is thanks to Watt that Ontario, under the Conservative government of Mike Harris (Watt played a key role in getting him elected), changed every single statute that dealt with common-law couples and gave same-sex spouses the same rights. “It was the single biggest voluntary step [for gay rights] any government in Canada has ever taken,” says Vanstone. Flaherty, who was Ontario’s attorney general at the time, noted in a congratulatory letter to Watt that “Some were surprised our government took this decision . . . but conservatives fundamentally believe in equality and fairness. It does, however, sometimes take leaders such as Jaime to help us live up to our ideals.” At the after-party, Tory Senator Nancy Ruth was the first to hit the dance floor but was upset when the DJ spun electronic beats and no rock music.

Continue…

The Commons: Stephen Harper's real world

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 6:55 PM - 53 Comments

The Scene. Stephen Harper is not one to leave well enough alone. So having spoken hopefully of his government’s plans to build parking spaces in the Toronto suburbs, a pedestrian overpass in Surrey and a library in Weymouth, his voice switched to a more ominous tone and his pointy finger started wagging near the bottom of the television screen.

He took direct aim at the Liberal leader, informing the viewing public that his rival had vowed “unequivocally” to raise taxes—news that will surely come as some surprise to even Mr. Ignatieff. He bemoaned the boogie men and women of the opposition who continue to insist their majority of seats in the House of Commons holds sway over his 37 per cent mandate. And he warned that only “needless political instability” could harm us now.

The Prime Minister does like to make dramatic-sounding pronouncements. Take, for instance, that moment in late September when he said “the only way” the country would fall into recession was if we were collectively crazy enough to choose Stephane Dion over him. Or that editorial, published on election day a few weeks later, when, with the stock market gone wobbly, he vowed “never” to take the country back into deficit.

Of course, you’ll forgive him if those assertions now seem a bit silly. Indeed, it is entirely unfair to impose the consistency of actual reality on Mr. Harper. A bit like asking Al Pacino to play the same character in every one of his movies. Though perhaps that’s a bad example. Continue…

The Commons: Everything about this is awful

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 6:24 PM - 55 Comments

The Scene. About ten minutes past the appointed time, the cameras outside the door began to flash, announcing Lisa Raitt’s arrival. A few seconds later she appeared at the entrance to the cramped room in Centre Block’s basement reserved for announcements, explanations and apologies.

Ms. Raitt collected herself, then approached the podium, the standard array of flags behind her. She placed her notes in front of her, sipped quickly from a glass of water and then, with watery eyes, began what had been promoted simply as a short statement.

Opposition anger the day previous had been dismissed as “cheap politics.” Others argued it simply had to be accepted that ministers of the crown would naturally, if in private, find something “sexy” in a potential health care crisis. Given a night to think it over, the minister herself had apparently suffered second thoughts.

Three young men from the Prime Minister’s Office watched from the side. At the front of the room, the Natural Resources Minister apologized to those who might’ve taken offence to a statement she had not intended any of us to hear. She expressed “deep regret” and offered a “clear apology.” She paused at the end of each sentence to take a deep breath.

She spoke of her father and his 18-month ordeal with colon cancer. She spoke of watching her brother die from lung cancer. She struggled to swallow the lump in her throat. With tears welling in her eyes, she made a brief, futile search of the podium for tissue.

She steadied herself, finished her testimony, pledged to carry on, then took her leave. Continue…