Ambrose out, Baird in as environment minister
In a widely expected move, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has shuffled MP Rona Ambrose out of the environmental portfolio and has brought in John Baird as her replacement.
Not sad to see Ambrose go, but at the same time, her bungling of the environmental file was indirectly doing a good thing by highlighting how little this Conservative government seems to care about the environment, global warming and clean energy. Her removal from this job is a sign that Harper is switching gears and trying to woo back the support of Canadians who are beginning to get a little ticked off about his party’s environmental plan — or lack of one. My biggest fear is that voters will actually buy into Harper’s new-found concern about climate change and Kyoto. Are we that easily swayed by mere perception? Let’s hope not.
As for Baird, I don’t know much about the man, but I expect he’s on a short-term mission called damage control. For a strong opinion about Harper’s choice of Baird, check out Glen Estill’s Wind Blog here.
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
January 5th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
It does look like the conservatives are trying to do something for the environment. But time will tell. The liberals looked the same but now we are stuck trying to meet the Kyoto targets that seem beyond reach.
Some report that Canada has to reduce emissions by 240 – 270 million tonnes. With the average Canadian creating 6 tonnes and when Nanticoke which is one of the largest Coal generating plants in North America creating 30 million tonnes. The numbers do not add up, how can we reach it. Jean Chretien must have been smiling when he signed on to this target with out any plan and knowing he would not be around to start something expensive. Our OECD rating on the environment has dropped year over year.
Tyler: May be you could comment on what major projects, any Government could do to get closer to our target without destroying the economy.
Great site, thanks..
January 8th, 2007 at 8:29 pm
Ambrose took 3 months to reply to my email at the start of October pleading her to make real commitments in the then-upcoming Green plan. I just got a reply two days before her removal. I had just seen The Truth About Global Warming and was all fired up and urged her to see it.