Harper's Government Works Hard

Sadly, the Harper government is working hard at tarnishing Canada's image worldwide.

As the article discussed below exemplifies we are now willing to deceive our allies worldwide. Never mind that their ability to be fooled rests on decades of honest dealings. Never mind that putting such a high priority on short term goals makes all future goals harder to achieve. Never mind that our weakened international reputation will have consequences on us for decades.

UK 'extraordinarily naive' over Canada's tar sands lobbying
The Canadian government has repeatedly argued that the EU proposal, under the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD), is unworkable. According to a UK Foreign Office document released under Freedom of Information rules, a London-based Canadian diplomat called Sushma Gera met her UK counterparts on 21 October.

"Sushma told me that the US consideration of similar measures had just failed, as it was 'unimplementable'. She promised to send further details," reads the record of the meeting. The only similar measures in the US are being delivered by California's Air Resources Board, which has now written to Europe's Commissioner for Climate Action, Connie Hedegaard, to clear up what the ARB describes tactfully as a "misunderstanding".

The ARB letter, which I have seen, is a clear rebuttal of the Canadian arguments and states: "The principle of accounting for the lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of transportation fuels, including those associated with the production and transportation of crude oil, continues to be an important feature of the [Californian] Low Carbon Fuel Standard." The measures are clearly alive and well, not failed.

At the same meeting, Gera had also pushed Canada's official line that "the reporting requirements in the [EU] proposal would impose a significant administrative and financial burden on companies". Oil giant BP, which has significant tar sands interests, told Baker the same in a letter, claiming: "The regulatory burden would be considerable at a time when the industry is already creaking under the weight of a heavy regulatory regime."

What a short-sighted self-righteous attitude for our government to act on the ego of leadership thinking that their views are so important, so correct, that it's worth lying to the world in order to get what we want.

As soon as you have to start lying to people, never mind your friends, you know that there is something seriously wrong with your actions.

What I can't understand is why people go along with such behavior. The fact that you prefer a conservative government over a liberal government is not worth selling your soul over. If you believe in democracy at all you should understand that respect and tolerance for other people, and their opinions, is part of what you believe in.

However, as in America, it's now become all about using democracy to wrest power away from others, often through negative or downright deceptive propaganda, to get power.

Oh well, at least we know the Harper deceit and propaganda departments are working hard... sigh.

Addendum:

Notice, another foreign interest in Canadian oil sands issues... BP.