Filling the void

With the Cons apprently doing their best to develop a made-in-backrooms environmental plan, the Climate Action Network is stepping into the breach to get the public involved in creating environmental policy:

Frustrated by a lack of consultation on the government's "made-in-Canada" environment plan, activists plan meetings across the country to get public views on what should be done.

The Climate Action Network says it will hold workshops in 18 cities, including centres in every province and Yukon and the Northwest Territories...

Federal officials insist they are seeking views from outside government, but many environmental groups say they've been shut out.

"The reality is that the public has not been consulted at all," said Ann Coxworth of the Saskatchewan Environmental Society, one of the groups in the Climate Action Network.

Full credit goes to the Climate Action Network for stepping up to ensure public participation in environmental policymaking. But their willingness to fill the gap doesn't excuse the Cons for once again having absolutely no interest in hearing from either the general public or some of the most knowledgeable groups on a topic. Sadly, it doesn't seem like the Cons have yet learned anything from their previous experience in trying to impose policies without meaningful consultation...and it may take a more clear lesson at the polls to finally penetrate Harper's echo chamber.