By Alexander Panetta
OTTAWA (CP) - A prime minister who now promises to fight climate change once ridiculed the Kyoto accord as a money-sucking socialist scheme and said he would battle to defeat it.
Stephen Harper derided the global treaty and questioned the science of climate change in a 2002 fundraising letter sent to members of his now-defunct Canadian Alliance party. With polls showing the environment is a top priority with voters and Harper keen to bolster his environmental credentials, the letter could prove embarrassing.
It was circulated Tuesday by the Liberals, who said it unmasks Harper as a climate-change denier.
"Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations," says the letter, signed by Harper.
"Implementing Kyoto will cripple the oil and gas industry, which is essential to the economies of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia . . .
"Workers and consumers everywhere in Canada will lose. THERE ARE NO CANADIAN WINNERS UNDER THE KYOTO ACCORD."
He also blasted the treaty for targeting carbon dioxide - which he said is "essential to life" - and played down the science of climate change as "tentative and contradictory."
Harper went on to promise a "battle of Kyoto" in hope of defeating the Chretien Liberals' efforts to implement the treaty legislation in the House of Commons.
"But we can't do it alone. It will take an army of Canadians to beat Kyoto, just as it did to beat (the) Charlottetown (constitutional accord)," he wrote.
These days, Harper avoids critcizing the Kyoto accord, and simply dismisses its targets as unattainable.
Kyoto calls for a six per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels by 2012. Canada's emission levels have risen 27 per cent since 1990.
The prime minister's office would not comment on the letter but pointed out that the emission levels occurred under the previous Liberal government.
Now, with public-opinion polls indicating that climate change is becoming a dominant political concern for Canadians, the prime minister is promising serious action.
He intends to introduce a vastly revamped version of his Clean Air Act in the coming months. The original legislation has been ridiculed by opponents and opinion-makers as a work in progress that fails to set reduction targets before 2050.
The Liberals said the letter proves Harper isn't serious about tackling climate change.
"It's no wonder Mr. Harper's sudden change of heart is hard for Canadians to swallow," said Liberal MP Mark Holland.
"Now, suddenly, because he has seen the polls and realized the political opportunism of going 'green,' the prime minister has launched a new campaign - that of trying to convince Canadians that he actually cares about the environment.
"Well, no one is buying it."
A new poll released to The Canadian Press suggests Canadians are indeed skeptical about the government's environmental commitment.
Sixty-four per cent of the 1,023 respondents in the Decima survey said they believe recent Tory announcements are being driven by polls rather than conviction.
The Liberals also came in for criticism on the climate-change file Tuesday.
The NDP, which convinced the Tories to rewrite their Clean Air Act, accused the Liberals of trying to delay the process at a special legislative committee.
The Liberals and Bloc succeeded in gaining a two-week extension that will push the deadline for the committee's work to March 30.
The NDP says that's because the Liberals want to make sure the new bill can't pass before the federal budget - a confidence item which could mean the defeat of the minority government.
"(Liberals) would prefer that nothing gets done in this Parliament with respect to the environment," said New Democrat MP Nathan Cullen.
"The Liberals are dedicated to the idea that they've got a one-trick pony as a leader. (Stephane Dion) must present an environmental cause to Canadians - and they are willing to sacrifice the environment in order for that political gain."
Text of a 2002 letter by Stephen Harper to members of his Canadian Alliance party denouncing the Kyoto accord:
Dear Friend,
We're on a roll, folks!
The Canadian Alliance is once again setting the agenda in the House of Commons. Look at what happened in less than two months since Parliament reopened:
-We bagged another Liberal cabinet minister when we drove the hapless Lawrence MacAulay to resign for violating the ethics guidelines.
-We broke Jean Chretien's chokehold on the House of Commons by getting the election of committee chairs and votes on all private members' bills.
-We finally (!) got the Liberals to agree to set up a national registry for sex offenders.
But we can't just relax and declare victory. We're gearing up for the biggest struggle our party has faced since you entrusted me with the leadership. I'm talking about the "battle of Kyoto" - our campaign to block the job-killing, economy-destroying Kyoto Accord.
It would take more than one letter to explain what's wrong with Kyoto, but here are a few facts about this so-called "Accord":
-It's based on tentative and contradictory scientific evidence about climate trends.
-It focuses on carbon dioxide, which is essential to life, rather than upon pollutants.
-Canada is the only country in the world required to make significant cuts in emissions. Third World countries are exempt, the Europeans get credit for shutting down inefficient Soviet-era industries, and no country in the Western hemisphere except Canada is signing.
-Implementing Kyoto will cripple the oil and gas industry, which is essential to the economies of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.
-As the effects trickle through other industries, workers and consumers everywhere in Canada will lose. THERE ARE NO CANADIAN WINNERS UNDER THE KYOTO ACCORD.
-The only winners will be countries such as Russia, India, and China, from which Canada will have to buy "emissions credits." Kyoto is essentially a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations.
-On top of all this, Kyoto will not even reduce greenhouse gases. By encouraging transfer of industrial production to Third World countries where emissions standards are more relaxed, it will almost certainly increase emissions on a global scale.
For a long time, the Canadian Alliance stood virtually alone in opposing the Kyoto Accord, as Bob Mills, our senior environment critic, waged a valiant battle against it. Now, however, allies are stepping forward - eight of 10 provincial governments, and a broad coalition of businesses across Canada - to help us fight the "battle of Kyoto."
Jean Chretien says he will introduce a resolution to ratify Kyoto into Parliament and get it passed before Christmas. We will do everything we can to stop him there, but he might get it passed with the help of the socialists in the NDP and the separatists in the BQ.
But the "battle of Kyoto" is just beginning. Ratification is merely symbolic; Kyoto will not take effect unless and until it is implemented by legislation. We will go to the wall to stop that legislation and at that point we will be on much stronger procedural ground than in trying to block a mere resolution.
The Reform Party defeated the Charlottetown Accord in an epic struggle in the fall of 1992. Now the Canadian Alliance is leading the battle against the Kyoto Accord!
But we can't do it alone. It will take an army of Canadians to beat Kyoto, just as it did to beat Charlottetown.
We can't stop Kyoto just in Parliament. We need your help at all levels. We need you to inform yourself about Kyoto, to discuss it with your friends and neighbours, and to write protest letters to newspapers and the government.
And, yes, we need your gifts of money. The "battle of Kyoto" is going to lead directly into the next election. We need your contribution of $500, or $250, or $100, or whatever you can afford, to help us drive the Liberals from power.
Yours truly,
Stephen Harper, MP
Leader of the Opposition
PS: The "battle of Kyoto" shows why the Canadian Alliance is so important to you and to Canada. All the other federal parties are supporting Kyoto (Liberals, NDP, BQ) or speaking out of both sides of their mouth (Tories). Only the Canadian Alliance is strong and fearless enough to block dangerous and destructive schemes like the Charlottetown Accord and the Kyoto Accord.
Copyright © 2007 Canadian Press
I suppose somebody has to support that party...joking
