‘This is a case of a prime minister who doesn’t believe the climate is an important issue’

Two weeks after the President of the United States, in the process of discussing the Keystone XL pipeline, says Canada “could potentially be doing more to mitigate carbon release,” Elizabeth May takes part in a conference call with American reporters to criticize the Harper government’s environmental policies. Politico notices.

“What I don’t think the U.S. and American audience sufficiently understands, because you have a vague sense of Canada as a nice, good country, is that the current administration under [Prime Minister] Stephen Harper is against climate action,” said Elizabeth May, a member of Parliament and leader of the Green Party of Canada. “This isn’t a case of a government that means well but accomplishes little. This is a case of a prime minister who doesn’t believe the climate is an important issue, and all of his policies reflect that.”

This possibly does not matter much—Marc Jaccard’s comments that Canada is unlikely to meet its GHG reduction targets might be more serious—but it probably doesn’t help the Harper government’s cause. Of course, Leona Aglukkaq could announce stringent new oil and gas regulations and rebut this argument.