Who's full of hot air???

Gore's full of hot air: Day
By Sheila Dabu

OTTAWA (CP) - A November cold snap prompted Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day to dismiss Al Gore's climate change crusade in a weblog post brimming with mockery. Day's letter to his constituents in the British Columbia riding of Okanagan-Coquihalla constituents last week opened with a shot at the former U.S. vice-president. "Hey who knows, maybe Al Gore is right," Day wrote in the post dated Dec. 6.

"Maybe all my constituents living high up on the West Bench, or Lakeview Heights, or the hills of Logan Lake will soon be sitting on lakeside property as one of the many benefits of global warming."

Gore has long campaigned against what he believes is government inaction on climate change. His documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, did record business. Polls suggest the Conservatives' environmental package has been a dud with voters. Those same surveys suggest the environment could be a ballot-box issue.

When asked about the blog after question period, Day walked away from reporters and refused to comment.
Day wrote that a recent cold snap had him "begging for Big Al's Glacial Melt when the mercury hit -24."
About 22 towns and cities in British Columbia "had broken all-time records for paralyzing frigid temperatures," Day wrote.

But the Minister for Public Safety said that "rather than feeling badly for yourself," constituents should consider the upside: "For every hour it's that cold, millions of those nasty ravenous pine beetles who are destroying our forests are having their pesky little heads and jaws frozen, literally to death."

John Bennett, senior policy adviser at the Sierra Club of Canada, said Day's comments are symptomatic of the government's position on the environment. "What the blog demonstrates is what the government of Canada really thinks about climate change, that it is something to joke about, not something to take seriously and the policies of the government reflect that," he said.

Bennett added that the Harper government cut almost all climate change programs when it came into power.
The government began disassembling Canada's Climate Change Program last March when programs announced in Action Plan 2000 were not renewed.

Liberal environment critic John Godfrey said Day's punch line was lost on him. "The problem is that when a senior cabinet minister, laughs away and dismisses the greatest challenge facing the planet today . . . and reduces it to, 'Well, it's snowing, therefore, where's climate change, and even if there was climate change, maybe everyone would be happy because they'd have beach front property,' this is to trivialize a huge problem for the planet," Godfrey said.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May said she wasn't surprised by Day's comments. "Mr. Stockwell Day sums up what David Suzuki said about parliamentarians, that they're all ignoramuses," May said in a telephone interview. (yay David Suzuki!)

These comments reflect his ignorance about his own portfolio as minister of public safety, May said.

"The most significant threat to Canadian security is climate change, not terrorism."