Demanding solutions

CanWest reports on yet another poll showing the Cons opposing the majority of Canadians, this time with respect to global warming:

Nearly two-thirds of Canadians believe the Conservative government will fail to take adequate steps to fight global warming, and blame the oil and gas industry for making matters worse.

And a similar number 63 per cent are "desperately concerned" that the "world may not last much longer than another couple of generations" if drastic action isn't taken immediately.

Those findings from a recent Ipsos Reid survey of 1,296 adult Canadians are released as the Tories prepare to unveil their long-awaited green plan within weeks.

But this being CanWest, there has to be some pro-Con spin to be had. And sure enough:

The Ipsos survey conducted for CanWest found only 35 per cent of Canadians trusted that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government would "take the right and most reasonable steps to reduce Canada's greenhouse gas emissions to protect against global warming."

The low expectations could be good news for the Conservatives, who only need to take small steps on the environment to improve their popularity, said John Wright, senior vice-president at Ipsos Reid. "The expectation of the public is that they will not deliver a program which really goes very far," said Wright. "But if they are focused, and can get some positive spin on a made-in-Canada solution, they may exceed expectations and get some political mileage."

If anything, even the current level of expectation seems to leave some room for disappointment. But it's still hard to see how Canada's belief that the Cons won't do much can reflect positively on a government which has been going out of its way to selectively leak details of its plan for months now.

Moreover, all indications now are that the Cons' plan will end up being based on U.S.-inspired junk science rather than any real reduction in greenhouse gas emissions or anything "made in Canada" to begin with. Which should give the two-thirds of Canadians who already don't trust the Cons on the issue all the more reason to ensure the Cons don't stay in power any longer than can be avoided.