All posts by Chris Tindal

Bill Graham to Retire

democracy and good government, liberal party

The Toronto Star reports today what many have long suspected, that Bill Graham will not seek re-election in Toronto Centre. I spoke with Bill a few weeks ago and told him that I’ve been glad to have him as my MP for the past several years. He’s rightly respected, and will be missed.

The Star also reports that Stéphane Dion has said that there will be an open nomination race to select the next candidate. Let’s hope so. There are several local people who are interested, and Liberal members in Toronto Centre deserve to pick their own candidate. Whoever they choose, the next election will certainly be interesting.

An Emotional Truth

climate crisis, toronto

Al Gore brought his now famous slideshow to a sold-out crowd at the University of Toronto last night. Outside, a very Canadian phenomenon — the “friendly picket” — was taking place with signs that read “Welcome Al” and “Heed The Goracle.” Inside, former Ontario premiere David Peterson introduced Gore as a “moralist, philosopher, thinker, teacher, doer, and rock star.”

“I love you Al,” someone yelled from the upper seats of Convocation Hall once the first burst of applause had died down.

Before diving into his formal presentation, Gore stayed off script to single out Mayor David Miller and Toronto, saying the city stands out as a “beacon of hope,” and has a “determination to try and get it right.” He also couldn’t help but add, “I just wish Canadians could vote in American elections…retroactively.”

The presentation itself was largely the same as in the movie, An Inconvenient Truth. In short, not only is there no scientific disagreement regarding the reality of global warming or our role as a major cause (“the so-called skeptics are disappearing faster than icebergs”), the stakes could not be higher, and there’s no time to lose. It is no exaggeration to say that the climate crisis represents the greatest threat ever to face our entire species. The debate is over. Now, as Winston Churchill said while the storm clouds of fascism gathered before the second World War, “we are entering a period of consequences.”

There were, however, two interesting differences between Gore’s live presentation and his filmed one. First, there was even more scientific detail last night, and a greater recognition of the complexity of the climate change issue. That’s significant, because said complexity is often used by paid deniers (some of whom, by the way, are actually the same people who used to take money from the tobacco industry to tell us smoking didn’t cause cancer) to try and create confusion.

Gore also updated his slideshow to include the latest science and more current examples (some as recent as last week). For example, in the movie a big deal is made of the possibility that melting ice in Greenland could stop the flow of the Gulf Stream. That now seems less likely to scientists, and Gore told us so. (On the other hand, a lot of the science has gotten more dire.)

The second main difference is how much more emotional the facts are when delivered in person. Three quarters of the way through the presentation, Gore piles on the bad news: carbon concentration in the atmosphere is higher than it’s been in a million years; positive feedback loops (like the melting of the permafrost, which releases even more greenhouse gas) have already started to kick in; 100% of world fisheries have already peaked and declined in production; coral reefs are already starting to dissolve in more acidic oceans; floods and droughts (seemingly contradictory phenomenon caused by overall climate destabilization) are already costing people their water, food, and lives; both antarctic and arctic ice (the two “canaries in the mineshaft”) have already started to break up much faster than was predicted.

Whispers of “oh shit” rippled through the crowed as different people reached their own realizations.

However, at no point did Gore become more emotional than when talking about the solutions that are possible, and his belief in humanity’s ability to accomplish them. Straying from his typically American examples, Gore had some specific messages for Canada on this point. For one, he pointed out (as his slideshow omits) that per capita we are as bad as Americans when it comes to contributing to the climate crisis. On the other hand, he spoke of how respected Canada has been internationally for so many years, and then, under his breath and with deliberate coyness, said, “now, you wouldn’t walk away from Kyoto, would you?” If we don’t clean up our act, Gore explained, that makes it easier for the US not to act as well. “That’ll be the homework,” he said.

(These comments come a week after Harper’s environment minster, John Baird, was still trying to pretend that Gore supported his government’s plan, even after Gore’s office put out a statement to the contrary. Gore also said that Harper’s plan of intensity targets is an invention of the George W. Bush White House, and completely ineffective.)

At the end of the presentation, Gore told the story (if you’ve seen the film you’ve heard it) of when his six-year-old son slipped from his grasp, ran out into traffic, and was struck by a car. His son was in intensive care for months before pulling through. It’s the story of a father almost losing his son, and feeling like he could have done something to prevent it. It’s an impossible moment to replicate, but trust that everyone in the room was leaning forward, holding their breath. “If I could go back in time,” Gore explained, slowly, quietly, “I would go back to that moment right before his hand slipped from mine, and hold on tight.”

Then, turning to the image of the Earth on the screens behind him, Gore delivered his final message in the most urgent of whispers. “It’s beginning to slip from our grasp. I want you to hold on to it.”

This post also appears on Torontoist.

Canadian Sovereignty at Risk

canadian sovereignty, democracy and good government, foreign affairs, social justice

A few months ago I wrote about a secret meeting that had taken place between high-ranking officials of the Canadian and American governments, with a view to creating a more integrated continent. This stealth North American union project (known as the Security and Prosperity Partnership, or SPP) is heating up again, though more attention is being paid in the States than here in Canada. Some American legislators are speaking up about the plan’s threat to national sovereignty, as well as the fact that it’s being negotiated undemocratically, in secret.

If the United States government is concerned about a loss of national sovereignty, we should be even more so.

This issue is receiving renewed attention now because of a planned visit to Ottawa by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff this Friday, along with Mexican officials. That visit will be followed up with a trip to Canada by George Bush in June.

Canadians should be paying far more attention to the prospects of deep integration with the United States. This is a country that no longer believes in the right to a fair trial, and that has still not apologized for deporting one of us — Maher Arar — to be tortured. There are things on which we can cooperate, but for the sake of human rights and national sovereignty, the US version of “security” is not one of them.

Or, if there’s nothing to worry about, then there’s no reason to keep having these discussions and meetings in secret.

Bush Melting Faster Than Harper, Slower Than Arctic

climate crisis, conservative party,

I’m back in Toronto after a Christmas-family-tour. One stop was to visit my Gomma and Pappa (the names us grandkids call my dad’s parents for reasons that have never been clear to me), who gave me some new clippings. One was all about polar bears, and highlighted the fact that over the past few decades the thickness of the ice in the arctic circle has thinned by 40%.

I read a lot of statistics and, recently, I’ve just been letting them wash over me like noise. Otherwise, they become overwhelming and even debilitating. My Pappa’s disbelief, however, caused this one to stand out. Actually, you might describe his reaction as outraged. I was somewhat surprised to hear this man in his 80s demand to know why SUVs aren’t illegal. He kept asking me to write a letter to the Globe and Mail, “telling Canadians to wake up.”

I tried to comfort him with the good news that, in fact, we now see daily stories and op-ed pieces about the climate crisis. Exactly one year ago, I told him, I was in an election campaign where I felt like I still needed to convince people that climate change was real. If we had another election campaign today (or, say, in March), I’d be able to assume that most people recognize the threat and move on to advocating for specific solutions. That’s a huge step forward, I argued. Pappa remained unsatisfied that we’re moving quickly enough.

Today’s announcement by U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne that he agrees with my Pappa and believes polar bears are “threatened,” and that this threat is a specific result of climate change, is a good sign. It’s also an embarrassing one, since it means that the Bush administration has now done more to acknowledge the science of climate change than Stephen Harper.

It’s not Canadians that need to wake up, it’s our government.

The good news in all of this is that in our next federal election you’ll see all four national parties making the environment an issue (something that none of the three status quo parties did effectively in the last campaign). The environment has (finally!) become an issue like health care and education, in that everyone can agree it’s important (critical, in fact). It won’t be enough for a party to say they “care about” and “want to protect” the environment. Politicians will have to demonstrate they have solutions that work. That’s where I believe the Green Party has credibility the other parties lack.

We’ll have to move quickly though. Not just because we’re running out of time, but because my Pappa deserves some good news.