Green revolution set to follow red
Between the world wars, when the march of Communism suffered a local setback, a representative of the Comintern, the organization set up by Lenin to spread global revolution, would turn up to rally the non-uniformed troops. This week, Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Program, UNEP, turned up in Toronto to put some backbone into the cadres down at the editorial boards of The Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star.
Mr. Steiner's visit was no doubt timed to provide stiffening in the wake of Stephen Harper's victory, but he also seemed to be here on Monday to support Ontario's Green Energy Act. His timing turned out to be a little off. On Tuesday, provincial Conservative leader Tim Hudak promised to deep-six both feed-in tariffs and the Liberal government's sweetheart deal with Korean giant Samsung if he becomes premier after the provincial election on Oct. 6.
Mr. Steiner has become a prominent source of green alarmism and a leading shill for rent-seeking green energy companies, who were already in mourning at Mr. Harper's victory.
According to the Globe, Mr. Steiner suggested that those who complained about green energy's enormous costs were using a "simplistic argument" to undermine "a crucial policy in boosting Ontario's economy." The Globe did not report whether his nose started to lengthen when he claimed that the green shift was going smoothly "and in a less costly manner" in places such as Germany.
We are apparently to ignore that solar-powered electricity costs up to 20 times as much as the conventional type. Just concentrate on the fantasy that there is no trade-off between growth and greenery. Meanwhile, think of Canada's reputation as an environmental "leader." (For those not familiar with greenspeak, "leadership" means doling out subsidies. Mr. Harper's culpable lack of green leadership has been much bemoaned in the wake of his victory.)
At the Star, Mr. Steiner reportedly expressed amazement that anybody might object to having their views blighted and their electricity bills padded by wind turbines. What about the oil sands? But then the oil sands are a bit difficult to spot from the Scarborough Bluffs.
Who is Achim Steiner anyway? You might think it's a bit extreme to compare a UN agency to an organization set up to overthrow the "international bourgeoisie" and abolish the nation state. But not if you know anything about UNEP.
UNEP was set up by Canada's own Maurice Strong -perhaps the leading figure in trying to save socialism from the dustbin of history by painting both socialism and the dustbin green. He created it after his first great UN environmental doomfest in Stockholm in 1972. Its importance was indicated by the man Mr. Strong selected to be its first head: himself.
In 1990, in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Jan Tinbergen, who had been the first Nobel laureate in economics and was unashamed to admit that he had entered economics "to find a scientific base for a socialist order," specifically cited UNEP as an organization that would keep the socialist dream alive.
In his 2004 book, The Role of Business in the Modern World, British author and former chief OECD economist David Henderson fingered the creation of UNEP as a "landmark" in the development of what he called "new millennium collectivism."
UNEP has always reflected Mr. Strong's genius for using global taxpayers' money to further his political agenda. As Mr. Strong's successor, Mr. Steiner controls not only UNEP but the United Nations Office in Nairobi, UNON, "which provides the administrative, conference, security and logisitics services to the UN family in Kenya, which hosts offices and projects of more than 60 UN agencies, funds and programs, and over 5,000 staff." UNEP is also a co-parent of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, the main agency that pushes climate alarmism. We might note that one piece of "capacity" that the hefty UN presence in Kenya has failed to "build" is that of honest government.
It is astonishing that anybody, especially editorial boards, would take Mr. Steiner any more seriously than they might take a Libyan official bloviating about human rights. He has for years reflected His Master's Voice, such as in promoting a World Environmental Organization, with "disciplinary powers." Mr. Steiner persistently accuses his opponents of being "ideologically" motivated, as if he were without either ideas or personal interests. He has called for the outlawing of plastic bags and has rejected the notion that biofuel policy might have been responsible for food-price escalation -a consequence that even Fidel Castro spotted. He perpetually invokes the voiceless future as his true constituency, and castigates big carbon-footed tourism, even as he clocks up more air miles than George Clooney in Up in the Air. He talks of a "Third Industrial Revolution." What he really means is a revolution to end human betterment by government fiat.
Mr. Steiner was quick to leap to his colleagues' defence in the case of Climategate. Mere doubts about the scientific facts were no excuse to slow down the agenda, he said. Questions about IPCC head Rajendra Pachauri amounted to a "witch hunt." Glaciergate was a "typographical error." The notion that the IPCC was "sensationalist" was, he claimed, "risible. Indeed, caution rather than sensation has been the panel's watchword throughout its existence."
Mr. Steiner will no doubt be mortified to read of Mr. Hudak's promise to disassemble those parts of the grand UN plan that Dalton McGuinty has been persuaded to introduce in Ontario. Despite the increasingly desperate rearguard action of Mr. Steiner and his ilk, the green global revolution seems to be going the same way as its red predecessor.
Going out a winner
Stephen Harper is Canadian politics' wunderkind these days -having just steered his Conservative party to its third straight election victory, and its first majority since the days of Brian Mulroney. But today we pause to pay proper due to one of his predecessors at the helm of conservative politics, Stockwell Day, who is retiring after a 25-year career.
Born in Barrie, Ont., and raised in Atlantic and Central Canada, Mr. Day moved west to pursue higher education, and became a pastor and school administrator in Bentley, Alta. In 1986, he was elected as a Progressive Conservative MLA, representing the provincial riding of Red Deer North. Premier Ralph Klein appointed Mr. Day to his cabinet in 1992, where he served as labour minister, social services minister and treasurer. His greatest achievements came in the latter portfolio, paying down the province's debt, cutting taxes and instituting a flat tax in 1999.
In 2000, Mr. Day entered federal politics, winning the leadership of the newly formed Canadian Alliance Party, which (and we admit this seems like ancient history) then was seeking to broaden the Reform Party's base east of the Manitoba-Ontario border -a sometimes awkward, but necessary first step toward uniting the right in the future Conservative party.
Mr. Day defeated former Reform Party leader Preston Manning for the Alliance leadership with 63% of the vote. His style was cheerful and vigorous (he rode up to his first press conference astride a Jet Ski). But when Mr. Day woke up to a federal election campaign a scant two months later, even his sunny personality could not withstand the vicious, highly personal attacks from political opponents and the media. One then-prominent Liberal strategist brandished a Barney doll during a television interview, in open mockery of Mr. Day's Christian beliefs.
It was an act of contempt toward a man's religion -the sort of gesture that Liberals would have decried had it been aimed at a Jew or a Muslim. But in those days, anti-Christian bigotry was much in fashion among Liberals and their supporters. And the move was hailed as a bold stroke.
Critics went further, accusing Mr. Day of harbouring a hidden agenda, of being homophobic and of wanting to ban abortion. While Day himself made unforced errors, including a nowinfamous reference to the Niagara river symbolizing a "brain drain" because it flows south (it actually flows north), it was largely a Liberal-led campaign of demagoguery that denied the Alliance its coveted breakthrough in Ontario. The party won 66 seats -six more than previously held by Reform -but only two in central Canada.
Mr. Day's party nearly imploded in 2000, when a handful of Alliance MPs broke away to form a "Democratic Representative Caucus." In 2001, Mr. Day resigned as party leader, and lost the Alliance's subsequent leadership race to Stephen Harper in 2002.
After such a crushing defeat, many other politicians would have retired to lick their wounds in the comfort of a corporate office, far from the bruising environment of Parliament Hill. Had he followed the Liberal path, Mr. Day would have spent the next decade or two waging a passive-aggressive backroom campaign against those who ousted him, tearing his party apart in the process.
Not so Mr. Day. Ever committed to public service, he stayed on as an MP, and accepted the appointment as foreign affairs critic in Mr. Harper's shadow cabinet. When the new Conservative party won its first minority government in 2006, he became minister of public safety, and subsequently served as minister of international trade and president of the treasury board. In all roles, he served Mr. Harper ably and loyally.
In the latter part of his career, as he had throughout, Mr. Day displayed not only graciousness, but great determination. He steadfastly defended Canada's allies, including Israel. He helped advance Canada's agenda on free trade, including in the Asia-Pacific Gateway. He chaired the Cabinet Committee on Afghanistan. He earned the respect of both political friends and foes alike, which is a lot more than can be said for many of those Liberal doll-wavers, who fell into obscurity as Mr. Day was representing Canada on the world stage and shaping domestic policy in Mr. Harper's government.
In Mr. Day's own words, "The aim to improve your country has to be bigger than your ego." If all our politicians felt that way, Parliament would be a far more honourable and productive place. Canadians-and conservatives in particular -owe Mr. Day a debt of gratitude for his years of service.
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