Newly-public vacation snaps remind us of who really ran the death camps

October 19, 2007

The gullibility of newspapers was on full display the day Stephen Harper shuffled his cabinet: Replacing Rona Ambrose with John Baird as environment minister made the front pages across the country.

"Aggressively clueless politician replaces same" should have been the headline. And Canadians should be skeptical. Never take a politician at face value. Anyone in British Columbia who was still nervously boiling water after the rainstorms or who has seen the wreck that is Stanley Park, anyone in Toronto who golfed or raked leaves in their shirtsleeves on that winter day, anyone who has read that 2007 will be the warmest in recorded history should be deeply cynical about Harper's move.

Harper actually spoke to reporters from an outdoor podium. Remember, it is January in Ottawa too. Our capital city is the kind of place where Pierre Trudeau went for walks alone in the snow, where I remember with regret my lifelong refusal to wear fur.

All I could think as Harper said his government would "do more" on the environment was what he has done so far: worse than nothing.

He has declared that promises made in Kyoto can't be met. He has cut environmental programs and refused to honour a $538-million deal with Ontario to close coal-fired electricity plants, as Stéphane Dion immediately pointed out.

He is not planning high-speed rail transit between Montreal and Toronto (France's TGV lines are the envy of the world), or to cut back on the worse polluters of all: airline flights. He has had nothing to say about the draining of the Athabasca River in Alberta for tar sands oil projects. He appointed know-nothing, do-nothing Ambrose to ridicule Kyoto targets.

Now we turn to John Baird. I search in vain for any kind of experience related to climate change. Sorry, I mean "fighting" climate change. The Toronto Star reports that he did help kill a light-rail transit project in Ottawa, which is contrarian to put it politely.

Baird's degree is in political science. In his 11-year political career, he has worked on community and social services, labour, management board, finance etc. His website states that he was Ontario's Minister Responsible for Children. What a strange job title. Is this government-financed child care? It sounds like babysitting.

Also, he is a good yeller in the House of Commons, although he yells nothing productive or interesting or substantial, which is why Canadians have lost interest in question period — which should be fairly enthralling. He just yells about the Liberal past. As Elizabeth May of Green Party said this week, who cares about the past? With climate change, it's the future that matters.

Baird's forceful personality is said to be evidence that he will get things done. The prime minister has missed the fact that scientists, voters and economists don't need to be shouted at about climate change. They're the ones who have been doing the shouting at Harper's government. They need someone to listen.

The search for evidence

I am reduced to searching Baird's website for evidence that he has even been outdoors. There are 49 frighteningly tedious snapshots of Baird shaking hands at endless Ottawa West-Nepean community breakfasts, Legion functions, Christmas cheer events, "Build-A-Bear" mall openings and seniors' teas.

In precisely three of them, he is outside, and I'm including the marquee at a Walk for Kids Help Phone. (I am always reduced to pity by MP's websites. Consider their life, smiling away at the riding's Tim Horton's Camp Day. This slim young man has grown obese in politics, and it isn't the rubber chicken dinners, it's the doughnuts.)

The weird thing was Baird's failure to hold a press conference. Has he even done the most basic thing, watch An Inconvenient Truth? It's a real shiv to the spinal cord, sir. Does he know what the Stern Review is? This 2006 report said global warming could shrink the world economies by 20 per cent, but perhaps only one per cent if we make radical changes now. Perhaps after the swearing-in he already had Sir Nicholas Stern on hold, ready to advise Canada on some stunning ideas on carbon taxing?

No, I don't think so either. Baird, on message, told the CBC, "We can do more, we want to do more, we're committed to doing more," in that repetitious incantatory style that is useful when teaching children new words but is so irritating to grown-ups.

The fact is, Harper cares about taking real action to slow climate change about as much as the Liberals cared about it. Now that he has belatedly realized that Canadians care deeply, he wants to be seen to care. I predict he will do nothing significant.

The problem is, Harper doesn't believe in federal government, or indeed any government to speak of. Its purpose, to think a century ahead, to do the things that citizens, corporations and institutions cannot possibly do alone, is alien to him.

For all that Ambrose was a failure and an international embarrassment, we must remember that she wasn't out to please anyone but Harper. The same goes for Baird. In a weird, depressing way, she was a success. And he will be a success too by Tory standards. In 10 years, we'll be playing beach volleyball on New Year's Eve.

Good night and good luck.