So my old professor Michael Byers plans to run for the NDP in Vancouver-Centre.
I can’t say I’m surprised. It was no secret at UBC that he was planning to run for something… although the rumour at the time was that he was going Liberal. And, at that time six months ago, I wondered why not NDP. I guess I was proven right in the end.
It seems everybody on the Maclean’s blogs has something to say about this event. So does the Vancouver Sun, unflattering as that article is. The part that interests me is that he decided Stephane Dion’s “Green Shift” wasn’t any good and he preferred the NDP’s environmental plan. Dion must have better marketing, because I don’t remember what the NDP’s environmental strategy is, other than that it’s not (NOT!) the same as the Liberals’.
Still, I’m not sure why Byers doesn’t like Dion’s plan. It seems fairly consistent with his lectures on environmental issues in class. It’s also fairly consistent with the problem he posed to the class: how to ethically dispose of an SUV his family won in a grocery store contest. He didn’t want to drive such an environmentally-damaging car, but nor did he want to sell it, because that would mean somebody else would drive the gas-guzzler all over Vancouver. I don’t know what they finally ended up doing.
His lectures on environmental problems or on many international issues were quite good though, and the support he gave to his students was admirable. Like any good politician, he knew everybody, and would frequently enlist his contacts to help out on student projects.
Anyhow, Prof. Byers, should you ever read this, feel free to comment or drop me an email. I’d love to know why you think Layton’s strategy is better than Dion’s. And what you did with that car.
http://www.ndp.ca/page/6565
This might have not worked for a desperate leader who needed to find a way to display leadership after months of leading his caucus is a bold strategy of abstaining from defeating a “terrible, right wing Republican government” (his words).
But I think it certainly qualifies as an environmental plan and likely one that will do as much, if not more for the environment than the Green Shift.
If you need a refresher, you may want to start here …
http://www.ndp.ca/page/6565
* Layton persuaded Harper to send his Clean Air act to a legislative committee at 1st reading, so it could have an all-party rewrite before returning to the House. The rewritten Clean Air and Climate Change bill passed through all stages in the Commons, although Harper then prorogued the House.
* Next Layton got the House to adopt his Kyoto Plus bill to set post-Kyoto targets for GHG emission cuts
* The NDP supports a Cap-and-Trade system, like Barrack Obama does, which legislates hard caps on industry (not ‘intensity-based’ ones like Harper and Baird want) by selling credits, and then allowing companies that beat their cap to sell the room to companies that don’t. Over time, you then reduce the amount of credits made available each year. This:
(i) creates a pool of cash from emitters to fund government programs that assist in the creation of alternative energy sources and greener transportation alternatives, and in reducing personal energy consumption (retrofits, insulation, better furnaces and windows, etc),
(ii) creates a strong financial incentive for emitters to innovate to reduce GHG emissions and a financial disincentive for delaying those changes, plus it
(iii) brings Canada into line with the approach being taken in Europe and supported by both Obama and McCain. Unlike the Europeans, who had a lot of players at the start and not much experience running such a market, we have already operated such a system in North America … it’s what cleaned up the Acid Rain problem in a very short timeframe.
The “revenue-neutral carbon tax shift” the Libs have proposed does not divert tax revenues into fixing the problems, or even regulate emission levels to bring them down. It boils down to a hope that taxing one thing more and another thing less will subtly modify behaviour … in the absence of any available alternatives.
Anyways, Leslie, give it a read.
yeah, i dunno why byers is running in vancouver centre. he doesn’t even live there! and he was talking to the liberals last week… now he’s running for the ndp.. can you say Flip Flop? sounds like michael byers will go with whoever will give him the easiest ride. i say good luck to heddy fry. at least she’s been a good mp for the riding.
Thanks for the reading material guys. I know what I’m doing with my Saturday night!
And Chris, I’m not sure why he chose Vancouver Centre either. Hedy’s pretty established there, and popular too. It will be an interesting contest. The debates will be fun to watch, I imagine.
Oh, and the flip-flop thing? I never believed for a second that he was actually going to run as a Liberal. It just wouldn’t fit, despite what some of those news articles say. So, I wouldn’t really call it a flip-flop.
Former ambassador Paul Cellucci is the worst US ambassor we ever had in Canada. He travelled coast to coast complaining that Canada should have joined the states in that Illegal US war. HE also did a very poor job as governor in MA. Therefore, if you seek his advice, I will no longer vote for the NDP.
Hi Sparks. I assume that by “you” in the last sentence there, you mean Byers? If so, fill me in: what’s his involvement with Cellucci these days? I haven’t been keeping up with Byers’ campaign lately.
The last thing we need is another impractical academic in a positions of power. Academics are too insulated from reality. Unfortunately, a lot of their support comes from young people who are brainwashed in class, and mistake style for substance. Environmentalism is the new religion, and is based more on faith than reality. There is nothing nice about nature if you don’t have a full stomach and shelter. Man “can” be humane. Nature isn’t. Bambi was not a reality show, and I wonder where the dinosaurs are if nature is so harmonious.
Ninety-five percent of greenhouse gases are water vapor. Three quarters of the earth is water. Do the math. How much of it does man produce? Byers sounds like a typical Environmental Evangelist, and he wants his followers to contribute their votes. In return, they go to NDP (Zero Responsibility) heaven, and Byers can continue to pontificate from on high.