Butchering the art of the deal

Unfortunately, the Montreal conference has proven that there's only one Canadian party capable of building a consensus and negotiating a difficult agreement. And it's certainly not the Libs:

(Stéphane Dion 's proposal) calls only for two years of discussions on "long-term co-operative action to address climate change."

It was designed to be vague enough to appeal to the U.S., which adamantly rejects any hint of a move that might require it to accept mandatory targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. It makes no reference to targets and carefully refers only to discussions, with no mention of negotiations.

Even so, the United States said it was inappropriate, because discussions could lead to negotiations...

"This is extraordinary. The (Dion) proposal was absolutely meaningless in the first place," said Phil Clapp, president of the New York-based National Environmental Trust.

Not that the official U.S. delegation escapes blame for refusing even to talk further about the climate change issue. But given that Canada was selected as host based largely on the hope that it could sway the U.S. to at least cooperate to some degree, the lack of movement also reflects a failure on Dion's part. And unfortunately, that's completely in keeping with the Liberals' track record on climate change.