On true colours

Since the Cons' continued cluelessness on greenhouse gas emissions demands more than just a passing reference, here's a shorter (or at least restated) John Baird on his commitment to the issue:

"I'm not a member of the Flat Earth Society. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't still make 'not falling off the edge of the world' my main goal when I navigate."

Update: Needless to say, I agree with the many other commentators who are less than happy with the Cons' effort to once again repackage the same old nonsense and pretend it's a revolutionary new idea. And that attempt should entirely eliminate any trace of "good faith" the Cons could claim to have shown with their funding for the Spirit Bear Rainforest.

But there's still at least some chance that some good can come of continued effort to put together a new bill on climate change. And that's true even if the Libs remain entirely disinterested in working toward an opposition plan.

After all, it's possible that the reannouncement is mostly for show - perhaps an effort to convince the oil patch that the Cons have done everything in their power to avoid absolute emission limits, and can't help but to give in to the resulting outcry. Or maybe the Cons honestly believed that a slight change in message/messenger would salvage their initial inaction plan - and a strong enough counterattack now will convince Harper that nobody in his party can pull off the trick.

Of course, it doesn't speak well for the Cons that even the best-case scenario involves them being either dishonest or utterly clueless.

But it shouldn't be news that Harper is determined to do as little as possible on the environment without it being fatal to the Cons' electoral chances - or that the Cons have a habit of underestimating what that minimum standard is. Which means only that there's still every bit of need that there ever was to ensure that nothing is left either to chance or to the Cons' judgment in any eventual legislation.