A Dime a Dozen Blog

Visit the Liberal Party’s website – Liberal.ca and you’ll see their new ad prominently featured.  You can see that ad below:

The advertisement is an attack on Stephen Harper and by extension, the Conservative government.  It features headlines from newspapers from around the world.  The purpose of these headlines is to show how the world is “moving forward” and creating green jobs, while Canada is left behind.

Let’s look beyond the headlines a bit and into the articles featured in the ad.

“Green collar jobs are the biggest prize“
The Scotsman, Sept 13, 2008

This story describes how to grow green collar jobs while reducing carbon.  Its solution?  CAP AND TRADE:

Carbon is one of the more esoteric markets that economists have dreamt up. The right to trade pollution credits may seem bizarre, or downright unethical to some, but this “flexible mechanism” is a vital device to tackle climate change. A “carbon credit” is created when a new measure, process or technology (including energy efficiency, renewable energy and forestry) reduces or absorbs carbon emissions, and ownership of the “difference” is claimed.

By putting a limit on emissions, at a country, business, or even personal level, and allowing trading to take place, the most cost-effective solution may be reached. Once carbon is valued in this way, it is commoditised and written into financial models, such as development plans. Carbon finance will, one day, make the world go round.The market for carbon credits doubled in size globally, to $64bn in 2007, and will boom over the next few years.

… “Political leadership on carbon bodes well for the Scottish economy, as it sends an important signal, and attracts investment,” says Gavin Tait, head of carbon trading at RBS. He adds: “Carbon trading could be a good thing for Scotland, as it plays into the hands of countries which lead the way in clean energy.”

Cap and Trade is a system is defined as: “A flexible environmental regulation mechanism that sets an overall limit on the emission of a certain pollutant, but allows companies that can easily reduce emissions to sell credits to other companies for which such reduction would be difficult. The cap ensures that emissions will not exceed a desired amount”

The Liberals have been vociferous in their denunciation of cap and trade, saying just last week:

NDP Leader Jack Layton is defying reality each time he claims that the NDP plan for cap and trade will work “faster and more efficiently” than a carbon tax and that it will not have an economic impact on families.

The next Liberal headline is “Plans for 1m green collar jobs” in the Sunday Times of September 7, 2008.

The actual headline is: “Business secretary John Hutton plans for 1m green collar jobs“.  This article talks about a soon to be announced $300 million dollar plan to buy electric cars for the government and give money to large German owned firms to build a research centre.  One line in this article sounds like it came straight from Prime Minister Harper – and is good advice for Liberals and their indescribable “Green shift”:

Hutton said the government would not pick winners and support them. “There is no going back to the 1960s or 1970s,” he said.

The third article is from the California Progress Report!?  The California Progress Report is the pet project of an Oakland, CA based lawyer – Frank D. Russo. The article in question was written by Bernadette Del Chiaro, “the Clean Energy Advocate for Environment California, a statewide, citizen-based environmental advocacy organization.”

It’s basically a political newsletter – a blog with a pedigree.

The article is titled “Green Investment Will Yield Two Million Jobs in Two Years–California Stands to Gain $13 Billion by Investing in Global-Warming Solutions“.  It’s solution to creating a Green economy?  Not a carbon tax – nope – cap and trade:

“This green economic recovery program is part of a comprehensive low-carbon energy strategy and would be a down payment on a 10-year policy program recommended by the Center for American Progress, including the immediate adoption of a cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as well as targeted standards and incentives to spur the transition to clean energy,” said Bracken Hendricks from Center for American Progress.

The other critical article comes from the Toronto Star, from 2006.  I can’t find it.  But it’s the Star, so I imagine that it supports the Liberals.

A final point – that ad also includes criticism of supposed cuts made in the 2006 budget – the time to attack those was during the vote on that budget – not two years later.  That budget passed with the unanimous consent of the house of commons.