On effective pressure

The Star joins the crowd trying to paint every interaction between the NDP and the Cons which falls short of a bar brawl as evidence of an alliance between the two. But the real story is that least some progress to preserve B.C.'s rainforest has been made as a result of the NDP's pressure on the Cons - and that more may be yet to come:

(I)t was at a Vancouver meeting of Layton, NDP environment critic Nathan Cullen (Skeena-Bulkley Valley) and Environment Minister John Baird that the NDP's political demands started to bear fruit, sources said.

At that Jan. 11 meeting, Layton presented his list of demands to the Tories – primarily a series of amendments to be made to the government's Clean Air Act – if they were to regain credibility on the sensitive environment file...

Before consenting to anything, sources in B.C. and Ottawa said, Layton told Baird he wanted to see a sign of good faith showing the Conservatives were actually committed to the environment, and not just trying to save their minority government from defeat...

Then, last week, the environment minister arrived in Vancouver to announce a $30-million contribution to an investment and incentive fund to help conserve the Spirit Bear Rainforest. It was matched with $30 million from the British Columbia government for economic development and $60 million in private funds...

Layton confirmed that he raised his concerns about the rainforest with Baird.

"Fortunately, on that occasion, they were listening," he said. "Let's hope they will adopt that pattern more often."

Cullen said in an interview yesterday that the NDP presented "no ultimatum."

"There was no deal to any of the offers we made."

"If you want Canadians to give you a second chance, this is the way to do it, to roll something constructive out the door," he said of the conversation, noting that neither Stéphane Dion as Liberal environment minister, nor Rona Ambrose, who held the post for the Tories, were prepared to act...

The combined federal-provincial funding "will be directed toward economic development opportunities for First Nations businesses involved in activities such as sustainable fisheries, forestry and tourism," (a news) release says.

Of course, the conservation of B.C.'s rainforest is only one of many of the NDP's concerns on the environment - and the Cons haven't shown much sign yet of a wider environmental plan worth supporting.

But it should go without saying that the more of the NDP's environmental demands the Cons can be pushed to act on, the better off Canada's environment will be. And even if nothing more comes of the talks - which could well be the case if the Cons wrongly think that they don't have much further to go and the Libs continue to try to stonewall against any action as long as they're not in power - at the very least Layton and Cullen can take credit for bringing about one more positive action than the Cons would ever have undertaken without the NDP's push.

Update: Based on Rob's comment to this post as well as Scott's typically-fair post, I was all set to credit the Libs generally for their reasoned response to a misleading headline. Sadly, some of the commenters at Scott's blog put that on hold. Then these posts went up, claiming the NDP has sold its body and/or soul by managing to win some environmental improvement without giving up anything.

Suffice it to say that these bloggers are set apart by the fact that if the NDP and the Cons did get into a bar brawl, they'd still try to claim it was a sellout on the part of the NDP. "You call that a haymaker, Denise Savoie? When it only took out two of Monte Solberg's teeth? This just proves that the NDP is in Harper's back pocket."