Global Warming

The Harper Conservatives' fight for credibility, as the party representing the Alberta oil industry, has been largely unsuccessful.

The Harper Conservatives, as the party close to the Alberta-based oil industry, oppose environmental restrictions that reduce the industry's profitability. Over the years, they have used a number of front groups and public relations firms to argue their case. With the Conservatives running a minority government, they are using the advantages of public office to make a case they have been advancing for years in opposition.

In April, the government produced a study, reported on in the Globe and Mail at the top of page one with the headline "Ottawa rolls out 'validators' to bolster anti-Kyoto." Toronto-Dominion Bank chief economist Don Drummond and other economists supported the Conservatives' claim that achieving Kyoto targets for greenhouse gas emissions would cause a recession in Canada. (By 60 percent to 36 percent in a Strategic Counsel poll in April 2007, Canadians said they didn't believe federal environment minister John Baird's claim that keeping Canada's Kyoto commitments would cost Canada 275,000 jobs and take the country into a recession.)

Environmentalists, political opponents and reporters immediately criticized the report. A "Reality Check" feature by reporter Margo McDermott on CBC's The National reported that the study was based on three questionable assumptions:

The government report did not mention benefits of meeting Kyoto targets such as jobs in green industries, lower health care costs, the thousands of children and seniors of others who may not get sick and die, the farms and forests that keep producing, the droughts that don't occur, and so on.

Reports like this from the government may be counter-productive to Stephen Harper's purpose in winning the public to his way of thinking on this crucial issue. Those who use a common-good frame might point to such shaky evidence as a reminder to voters of the Harper Conservatives' true loyalties. They draw their support from the oil industry and have always opposed taking part in international action to combat the world's great crisis, global warming.

Harper says he favours a "made in Canada" approach to global warming, which he and fellow conservatives prefer to call "climate change." There's an interesting history here.

The idea of a "made in Canada" approach to global warming was devised by a public relations firm hired by an industry-backed "citizens" group called the Canadian Coalition for Responsible Environmental Solutions (CCRES). The group, founded in 2002, lasted only a year. Groups like these are known as "astroturf" or fake grass because they give the appearance of being grassroots organizations but are funded and run by business lobby groups.

Stephen Harper once called the Kyoto accord a "socialist scheme" designed to suck money out of rich countries.

The letter, posted on the federal Liberal party website, was apparently written by Harper in 2002, when he was leader of the defunct Canadian Alliance party.

"We're gearing up now for the biggest struggle our party has faced since you entrusted me with the leadership," Harper's letter says.

"I'm talking about the 'battle of Kyoto' — our campaign to block the job-killing, economy-destroying Kyoto accord."

Related individuals, organizations and significant events
Canadian Coalition for Responsible Environmental Solutions National Public Relations, Burson-Marsteller

Harper Conservative vs. Public Values Frame
  Kill the economy / Conserving for our children, green jobs
  Unaffordable / Saving lives
  Made in Canada / Front groups, Astroturf, PR spin, oil industry lob
  Job Killing / Sacrifices for future generations

Links and sources
  http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Canadian_Coalition_for_Resp...

Posted: May 10, 2007

Harper Index (HarperIndex.ca) is a project of the Golden Lake Institute and the online publication StraightGoods.ca