A Coward, Shirker, And Prevaricator.

Unfortunately, having Mr. Baird crated up and shipped off to Atlanta like an ebola-infected monkey is likely Canada's last chance at not being punished by the international community as a gaggle of irresponsible children. That Baird is a shirker is obvious. Only a shirker would blame all of his problems on somebody else, in Baird's case the Liberals, and use that as an excuse not to perform his duties or meet his obligations. Only a shirker would pretend to be honouring an agreement while walking away from it. Only a shirker would make false claims in order to avoid doing hard work. Only a shirker would refuse to listen to the people he is supposed to represent. Most of all though, only a shirker would refuse to bring forth a bill that he and his leader agreed to have rewritten by representatives of all four parties represented in Parliament. Mr. Baird and Mr. Harper made a promise when they agreed to have Bill C-30 rewritten. The special committee that was formed wrote the bill and every clause was voted on. There is nothing in the bill that wasn't arrived at through the democratic decision of the people who were assigned to write it. For Mr. Baird to ignore that process and ignore the will of the majority of the representatives of the people of Canada shows him to have no accountability whatsoever. That brings us to Mr. Baird's cowardice. That cowardice is moral, political, and personal. This is a man who not only lacks the intestinal fortitude to do what has to be done, but is so fearful of the Canadian public, the press, and his fellow parliamentarians, that he not only evades the truth, but does his best to keep others from revealing that truth. At his recent announcement of his alleged green plan, Mr. Baird made sure that there was nobody present who might contradict him or tell the press about the many, many inadequacies of his plan. He refuses to bring the rewritten Bill C-30 to be debated and voted on in the House of Commons. He refuses to answer questions during Question Period or when asked by the press. The answers and statements Baird gives are so far removed from the facts that only a frightened child would try to foist them on adults. That is political cowardice, the simpering evasions of a man not fit to be allowed out in public, never mind hold office. Baird's moral cowardice is apparent as well. Anyone ready and willing to trade the future well-being of his country and his planet for the short-term gain of a few political backers and millionaires lacks any moral standing whatsoever. Only somebody with no moral courage at all would allow short term gains for the very wealthy to trump the long-term well-being of future generations. That brings us to the matter of Baird's dishonesty. Unfortunately, this is going to be the longest section. We could call him a prevaricator, a dissembler, or a fabricator. We could also go with that old fashioned standby and just call him a liar. Somebody who does not tell the truth is, after all, a liar. Mr. Baird has a long record of not telling the truth. All indications are that Mr. Baird is congenitally incapable of telling the truth. When Mr. Baird says that Stephane Dion and the Liberals did nothing for 13 years, he is lying. They were ineffective and didn't meet their goals, but the Liberals did several things over 13 years. Several of the most effective Liberal policies have been cancelled, then brought back by the Harper government. If the Liberals did nothing, why is Mr. Baird stealing their programs? The 13 year figure itself is inherently dishonest. Canada never ratified the Kyoto Protocol until late 2002, less than five years ago. The Chretien government did so despite the screams, from the same basic party that Baird now belongs to, that we would face certain doom. While Chretien failed to take action, and should be vilified for that failure, it must be understood that the Reform/Alliance/Conservative Party was very effective at opposing Kyoto. They enlisted their friends in the oil patch and in the US government to bring the science into question, scare the general population into thinking that Kyoto meant certain ruin, and to try to undermine the process. When Baird forgets to mention that, he is committing a lie of omission. The most effective part of that undermining was the pressure placed on Russia, mostly by Steve Harper's good friend George Bush, not to ratify the protocol. Without Russia's ratification the deal would have fallen apart. Russia didn't ratify the deal until 2004. As a result, it became international law in early 2005. Now there is no doubt that the Chretien government should have acted sooner and should have had a solid plan up and running before they ratified the deal, but every time John Baird says something along the lines of "13 years of Liberal inaction" he is lying. He's been around long enough to know that too. The other highly misleading statement that Baird likes to spout from his gaping maw is that Dion is somehow personally responsible for the Liberals' failure to meet Kyoto. That's not true either. Dion did not become Minister of the Environment until Paul Martin's last, very short, term. While Dion may or may not have had input in caucus and in cabinet before that time, it was not his file. Any influence he had would have been limited and it was Prime Minister Chretien calling the shots. Baird knows this, as does every member of parliament. There is one other set of lies that Mr. Baird likes to tell. He likes to try to make us think that meeting our Kyoto commitments would destroy the country financially. Throughout human history there has never been a technological advance that did not increase wealth, or at least the wealth of working people. The discovery of the pointed stick brought us more food. The industrial revolution brought us from subsistence farming and serfdom to a middle class and at least the illusion of democracy. The invention of the automobile brought us wealth as well as mobility. The computer age brought money and knowledge. Technology creates wealth for working people. Mr. Baird tells us that developing and implementing the technologies required to reduce our emissions will bring us poverty. In this case, I don't know if John Baird is purposely lying to us or whether he's just completely ignorant. Perhaps the brain flukes ate that part of his brain too. At any rate, auto workers are still working whether they are putting v-8 motors in retro-styled muscle cars or hybrid systems in compact cars. Houses receiving retrofits of insulation and new doors and windows creates jobs. Designing new, efficient buildings creates jobs. Building and running mass transit creates jobs. The other part of Baird's economic lie, is another lie of omission. Members of the EU have already said that they want to levy trade sanctions against countries that aren't compliant with the Kyoto Protocol. If we don't meet our obligations, they will impose tariffs and duties on us. So will the wealthy, and Kyoto compliant, countries of Asia. If Mr. Baird really wants to hurt the Canadian economy, having the EU and Japan impose sanctions on us is a sure way to do it. Mr. Baird never mentions any of this of course, yet he must be aware of the many calls for sanctions. Unless he wants all of our trade to be with the United States, Mexico, and China, there is no excuse for Baird not taking this into consideration. Mr. Baird is currently rolling out a green plan based on the original Clean Air Act that he dragged into parliament dead on arrival. Jack Layton and the NDP asked for that act to be revived in a special all-party committee. The act was rewritten and, according to most parliamentarians and environmentalists, is now a very powerful piece of legislation. John Baird is refusing to bring the act into the House to be debated and voted on. Instead he is continuing his pattern of prevarication, cowardice, and irresponsibility. The opposition parties should insist that he brings the act forward or bring down the Harper government.