Environmentally irresponsible

Remember UK Conservative leader David Cameron's effort to make his party environmentally friendly? Word comes out today that not only has Stephen Harper refused to take any such steps in Canada, but the Cons didn't even bother responding to Greenpeace's election questionnaire:

Greenpeace surveyed the five major parties on key environmental issues, but did not receive any responses from the Conservatives.

They will release the survey results today, in order to help "green" voters choose a candidate.

From a quick review of the submissions so far, there's plenty to like in both the NDP and Green responses. The NDP simply commits to the bulk of the measures, the Greens do the same with a bit more explanation.

Meanwhile, the Libs go with their typical strategy of claiming that they've already solved every environmental issue that matters, so if it hasn't been dealt with yet, it's nothing to worry about. Which is of course tremendously comforting when it comes to the continued generation and as-of-yet unplanned disposal of nuclear waste.

Yet even the Libs' dismissive view toward key issues is less worrisome than the Cons' apparent view that the environment isn't even important enough to be worth the time involved in putting forward the party's stance. While the Cons were called on their neglect in the article, it'll take a lot more attention to the environment within the campaign for voters to properly focus on the parties who are genuinely concerned about the issue.

(Edit: revised last paragraph.)