Wednesday, January 31, 2007
They have whiplash from the about-face. Is it just me, or is our new minister of the environment, the belligerent -- oh, sorry, "pugnacious" (thank you, CBC) -- in-your-face loudmouth John Baird, one of the single largest contributors of greenhouse gases in Canada? His predecessor, Rona Ambrose, was bad enough; the only thing she accomplished on the environment was to show the Tories' true colors, none of them green, and prove that there's no time limit on blaming the last guy, even after scrapping his environmental programs. (From obstinate denial to disingenuous finger-pointing in less than a year -- you've come a long way on climate change, baby.)
But Baird -- not only has he angrily picked up where she left off, but he's a walking, talking, quarreling carbon footprint. I can see the plume rising from Parliament Hill whenever that blowhard is there, yammering away in scrums, pointing fingers in Question Period, being an all-around bigger jackass than he was in the Ontario Legislature. (We threw those right-wing bastards out of office in 2003, but, sadly, Baird kept his seat.) Thanks to his political potty mouth, I no longer have a view of Canada's seat of government -- which, given the bile that rises in my throat when I see it these days, probably isn't a bad thing.
The stench of his -- and his party's -- poll-inspired born-again greenness, however...let's just say, I thought the manure at the Experimental Farm smelled bad. In 2002, his boss, our prime minister, was fighting against the Kyoto Accord, describing it as, among other things, "a socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations"; now Harper and his merry band of hypocrites have recanted their environmental atheism and are kneeling at the alter of Mother Earth. (Nice try, assholes; renouncing your Catholicism while burning at the stake doesn't make you Protestants.)
And just to make matters worse, Baird is an Ottawa MP, which means our lovely city has to suffer the most from his polluting presence. Our only reprieve is when he's on the road selling the Conservatives' snake-oil environmentalism -- a bad enough notion; Christ, if he ever visits the Arctic, we'll never get the ice back!
posted by media_dystopia @ 18:37 [ link | top | home ]
Sunday, January 28, 2007
So this is what they meant by "accountability." Ladies and gentlemen, a brand new low: running attack ads against the opposition leader, outside of an election campaign, at a time when Canadians don't even want an election -- worse, during prime-time television, including the Super Bowl (as if not getting the good ads here wasn't bad enough) -- instead of running the country. Have I got this straight? The Conservatives are using our time, our entertainment, our football parties to point out someone else's shortcomings instead of addressing their own? The only way this could be more disgusting would be if our money was also used -- and, frankly, seeing all those political appointments they raced to make before the Accountability Act kicked in, I don't put it past them to find a public-funding loophole to subject us to this puerile mudslinging. If this is how "Canada's new government" does business, if this is its idea of leadership, if this is one of its priorities, then please, let's go back to the old one. And people thought the Liberals were sleazy and arrogant. Ha!
Follow-up: Corner Gas. CTV News. The hockey game. Since you've chosen to ruin my Monday-night entertainment with your pre-election drivel, Mr. Harper, can I splice together everything you've said in the past and make you watch it against your will? Turnaround is fair play, you know.
Follow-up: Every commercial break during CTV News? Are you kidding me? Well, since you're so damn insistent, let me answer your question, Mr. Harper:
posted by media_dystopia @ 03:57 [ link | top | home ]