Category: Canada

Anything related to Canada or Canadians

Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie

Yesterday, I was part of a panel discussion and film screening at Hart House. They showed Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie, which I found to be ambitious and engaging. It combines footage from Suzuki’s 75th birthday lecture with a biography of his life, including his family’s internment by the British Columbia authorities during world war two, his work at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, his biological research at the University of British Columbia, as well as his activism and personal life.

The film involved a great deal of travel and one-on-one time with Suzuki, as they visited most of the important places in his life. It was also skilfully mixed with archival footage, though a bit of it may have been misleading (notably, the cut from the Hiroshima atomic explosion to footage of the totally unrelated Castle Bravo thermonuclear test, and the footage of the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant at Oak Ridge, which had nothing to do with Suzuki’s biological research at Oak Ridge).

All told, I definitely recommend seeing the film if you get the chance. It says very little about precisely what should be done to address the world’s environmental problems, but rather a great deal about why we ought to be making the effort.

Canada not on track to meet its (inadequate) climate targets

In the news today:

Canada won’t come close to meeting emissions target: Environment Canada

…

The latest internal government report confirms Canada is not close to being on track to meet its promised target for emissions cuts by the year 2020.

In fact, the Environment Canada analysis released Thursday indicates the country slipped backward in 2012 in terms of achieving the government’s greenhouse gas emissions target under the Copenhagen Accord.

Under that international agreement, Prime Minister Stephen Harper committed in 2009 to cutting Canada’s emissions 17 per cent from 2005 levels by the year 2020.

…

Even with long-overdue government regulations on the oil and gas sector, which have not yet been announced, Environment Canada doesn’t foresee a scenario where the 2020 target will be met.

Previously: Can Canada meet the Conservative GHG targets?

New carbon infrastructure in B.C.

British Columbia has a carbon tax, but it doesn’t seem to be taking to heart the need to stop building new infrastructure for the carbon economy:

B.C.’s north is in a frenzy of planning. There are applications for port expansions, coal and mineral mines, oil terminals, pipelines, synthetic fuel plants, liquefied natural gas facilities and hundreds of new drill rigs for shale gas extraction. Pinned on a map, the proposals create a porcupine of industrial intentions.

Hopefully, growing awareness about how wasteful and destructive it would be to build these things will keep it from actually happening.

From MaddAddam

The people in the chaos cannot learn. They cannot understand what they are doing to the sea and the sky and the plants and the animals. They cannot understand that they are killing them, and that they will end by killing themselves. And there are so many of them, and each one of them is doing part of the killing, whether they know it or not. And when you tell them to stop, they don’t hear you.

So there is only one thing left to do. Either most of them must be cleared away while there is still an earth, with trees and flowers and birds and fish and so on, or all must die when there are none of those things left. Because if there are none of those things left, then there will be nothing at all. Not even any people.

So shouldn’t you give those ones a second chance? he asked himself. No, he answered, because they have had a second chance. They have had many second chances. Now is the time.

Atwood, Margaret. MaddAddam. 2013. p. 291 (hardcover)

Fall term 2013

The year is off to a rapidfire start.

As part of the PhD, I need to do a second core seminar this year. I have chosen to take public policy because it accords well with my interests and experience, and apparently has a less onerous reading load than either comparative politics or international relations. I have been advised against taking courses with excessive reading requirements, given the need to re-take my Canadian politics comp in December.

PhD students are expected to take two courses in each term, so I am also taking an environmental politics and policy course. In addition, I am working as a teaching assistant for a course in U.S. government and politics, with three seminars back to back on Thursdays.

At our termly general meeting on the 25th, I will not be running for re-election to the executive of Toronto350.org. Nevertheless, I have some obligations to discharge with them, including two on-campus workshops on divestment and the October 15th film screening (free tickets still available).

In the background at all times, I should be thinking about and preparing for my re-comp in December. I find that I have already forgotten a lot of what I crammed for it the first time. When I re-take it, I will need to demonstrate both a comprehensive knowledge of the literature and an ability to formulate complex and convincing arguments. Toward the latter objective, I should be building up a database of convincing (and conventional, I’ve been warned off controversy) answers to recent comp questions.

Jeffery’s “In View”

My friend Chelsea Jeffery has an exhibition of photographic equipment on at Pearson Airport in Toronto, entitled: “In View: Moments from Canadian Photographic History”. It includes a variety of cameras and prints, as well as related materials like catalogs and

I headed out there today to have a look and take some photos.

More information is available through the Photographic Historical Society of Canada.

Tom Flanagan’s ‘Ten Commandments’

In 2007, Harper strategist Tom Flanagan enumerated ten ‘commandments’ for the effective use of power by the Conservative party:

  1. Unity. The various factions and splinter groups within the CPC coalition have to get along.
  2. Moderation. “Canada,” says Flanagan, “is not yet a conservative or Conservative country. We can’t win if we veer too far to the right of the median voter.”
  3. Inclusion. This means francophones and minority groups.
  4. Incrementalism: “Make progress in small, practical steps.”
  5. Policy. “Since conservatism is not yet the dominant public philosophy, our policies may sometimes run against conventional wisdom. The onus is on us to help Canadians to understand what they are voting for.”
  6. Self-discipline. “The media are unforgiving of conservative errors, so we have to exercise strict discipline at all levels.”
  7. Toughness. “We cannot win by being Boy Scouts.”
  8. Grassroots politics. “Victories are earned one voter at a time.”
  9. Technology. “We must continue to be at the forefront in adapting new technologies to politics.”
  10. Persistence. “We have to correct our errors, learn from experience, and keep pushing ahead.”

Certainly, they have done better in electoral terms than many people expected. When I moved to Ottawa in 2007, many people expected the Harper minority government to come to an end reasonably quickly, probably after the Liberals rebuilt themselves. Not least because of the Green-NDP-Liberal split on the left, that has yet to happen.

First-past-the-post consequences

1968: Pierre Trudeau’s Liberal Party wins 154 seats in the House of Commons, on the basis of 45.37% of the vote. The Progressive Conservatives form the official opposition with 72 seats, based on 31.36% of the popular vote.

1976: René Lévesque’s Parti Québécois wins a majority of 71 seats in the Quebec legislature, on the basis of 41.37% of the vote. The opposition Liberals get 26 seats, based on 33.78% of the popular vote.

2011: Stephen Harper’s Conservatives win a majority government of 166 seats, based on 39.62% of the vote. The opposition New Democrats win 103 seats with 30.63% of the vote (partly because the Liberals collapsed from 77 seats to 34, on the basis of a 7.36% drop in their share of the popular vote).