New York, NY January 7, 2006

In 2002, Stephen Harper, the Conservative leader running now to become Canada’s Prime Minister, said that Kyoto was “the worst international agreement this country ever signed.”
Stephane Dion, the outgoing Liberal Environment Minister, who was the Chair of the Montreal COP of the UNFCCC, accuses Harper of disguising the real intent of the Conservatives.

The electorate at large is mostly pro-Kyoto, so the Conservatives hide their real intentions that are probably to withdraw from the KP and join the US position, in the case they take over the Canadian government. In the meantime they maintain an ambiguous position on Kyoto, criticizing the climate treaty without saying they would withdraw from it.

Their statement says that “a long-term global and inclusive approach to reduce GHG emissions is the only tangible and workable solution to takling the challenges of climate change. A global plan must include the U.S.” This seems to mean withdrawal from KP since the current U.S. Administration has done so.

The way how this subject is dealt with by the Conservatives seems to strengthen the belief that they indeed may have caused the government crisis, at a time to coincide with the Montreal meeting, in order to help sink the global effort opposed by the US and other oil industry factors; the Conservatives’ strength is in the oil producing Provinces.