Stéphane Dion - PolicyChannel interview (English, français)

So with 2008 just around the corner, and a federal election likely to happen in the next few months, thought I'd share with you this great interview from Policy Channel in Edmonton, Alberta.

Satya Das interviewed Stéphane Dion during the 2006 Liberal leadership race in English et en français. Das and Dion discuss Alberta, the environment, energy, the economy, social justice, especially for Aboriginal people, international peace and security, and water management.

This interview was one of the major factors in my conversion to big-L Liberalism. I had a good impression of Dion previously, especially as environment minister, and was very glad when he won the leadership. This interview showed that he understands the interrelationship between the environment, social justice and the economy - his "three pillars." And also the impact of the environment on international issues, e.g. water security has a huge impact on the potential for violent conflict. I was also pleased with his emphasis on Aboriginal issues, especially education.

Taped in Edmonton during the 2006 Liberal leadership race. The interview is in three parts - parts 1 & 2 in English; partie 3 - en français. (Click the "menu" toggle button to select another video from the series.)



PART 1
Dion discusses his experience in government, his vision for the future, "reconciling the people and the planet," Alberta, energy and the environment. "I'm ready right away to be a very good leader and partner for Albertans. Alberta is my country. I fought to keep Alberta as part of my country." Also discusses international issues - democracy, health, avoiding war and violent conflict, human rights. Emphasizes importance of water management around the world.

PART 2
Dion discusses the north, Aboriginal people, education for Aboriginal youth, the Kelowna Accord, the economy, his three-pillar approach, the sponsorship scandal.

PARTIE 3
Stéphane Dion discute la course au leadership libéral (2006); l'Alberta, l'environnement, l'économie; l'approche à trois piliers - prospérité économique, justice sociale et environnement durable; le cercle virtueux; sa vision pour l'avenir.

Stéphane Dion - More year-end & Bali interviews

Stéphane Dion, Global National, Dec 2007

"Canada in Conversation" - Global National anchor Kevin Newman interviews official opposition leader Stéphane Dion, December 2007. Dion discusses Canada's combat mission in Afghanistan, the Manley commission, election chances in 2008, the Mulroney-Schreiber affair, and Dion as a politician. [08:15, English]

Stéphane Dion - year-end interview (Don Newman, Politics, CBC, Dec 18, 2007)
Canadian Liberal leader Stéphane Dion in a year-end interview with the CBC's Don Newman (Politics), December 18, 2007. Topics include election readiness, income trusts, United Nations climate change conference in Bali, Kyoto Protocol, environment. [10:16, English]

Update! - a slightly edited version of the above CBC intvu (to fit the under-10 minute requirement) is now available on YouTube:

Stéphane Dion - year-end interview (Question Period, CTV, Dec 23, 2007)
Canadian Liberal leader Stéphane Dion in a year-end interview with CTV's Craig Oliver (Question Period), December 23, 2007. Dion discusses possibility of an election in 2008, the economy, Harper's lack of plans, the Liberal team, Quebec, federal-provincial relations, the need for a public inquiry into the Mulroney-Schreiber affair, winter in the Laurentians in the snow with Kyoto. [11:54, English]

And here's another Bali interview. . .
Stéphane Dion - entrevue sur le blocage des négociations à la conférence de Bali
L'entrevue avec Stéphane Dion sur le blocage des négociations à la conférence de Bali. (Radio Canada, le 14 décembre 2007. Environnement, changements climatiques, gaz à effet de serre, UNFCCC, ONU, Nations Unies) [5:43, français]

And here's a link to my previous post with video of more year-end interviews, Dion's press conference in Bali, and (a blast from the recent past) Dion's throne speech response (October 17).

Stéphane Dion - Bali press conference, year-end interviews

Video coverage . . .

Stéphane Dion - press conference at Bali UNFCCC, 2007.12.12
And now also available on YouTube:

Canadian Liberal leader Stéphane Dion holds press conference at United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC) in Bali, Indonesia, December 12, 2007. (Topics include: environment, climate change, Kyoto Protocol, United Nations, Canada)

Stéphane Dion - CPAC year-end interview 2007.12.20
Now also available on YouTube:

Canadian Liberal leader Stéphane Dion in a year-end interview with CPAC, December 20, 2007. Dion and Peter Van Dusen discuss Dion's assessment of his first year as official opposition leader; reaction to negative press; the next election; Liberal party unity; the Harper Conservative record and agenda, e.g. Bali; the death penalty; Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) and supply management; Liberal vision and popularity; Liberal policies, e.g. poverty and environment.

Stéphane Dion - year-end interview on CTV's Mike Duffy Live, 2007.12.18
Canadian Liberal leader Stéphane Dion in a year-end interview on Mike Duffy Live (CTV), December 18, 2007. Topics include election probability, Chalk River nuclear reactor, the environment, Bali climate change conference, Kyoto Protocol, Quebec, role as leader of the opposition, Mulroney-Schreiber inquiry, Saskatchewan byelection, NAFTA.

And while we're at it -
Stéphane Dion's Throne Speech Response, Oct. 17, 2007
Stéphane Dion's response to the Speech from the Throne, House of Commons, October 17, 2007. Réponse par Stéphane Dion au discours du trône, le 17 octobre 2007.

And here are some more year-end interviews and a Bali interview from Radio Canada.

Canada tied with US in Fossil award count

Canada and the US are way ahead of the pack in the running for the prestigious-in-a-very-shameful-kind-of-way Fossil of the Year award.

As of December 13, Canada and the US both have 22 points, well ahead of Japan, our closest competitor.

In fact, Canada's no-longer-new-really-kind-of-fossilized government is so good at this, that on December 13, Canada not only won third prize all by itself, but we also tied for first place with the US, Japan and Russia. Wow. I bet John Baird is really impressed that he's in the same club with the big boys.

Minister Baird gets all the credit for third prize to himself. According to Avaaz.org:

Canada takes third for walking out of a high-level negotiation meeting long before the end of a crucial discussion. Yesterday, a “Friends of the Chair” meeting brought together 40 key ministers to work through tough issues that officials had not been able to resolve. In the midst of this, Canadian Environment Minister John Baird abruptly got up and left. Where was he going? He was spotted moments later holding a drink at a negotiation-free cocktail reception.

Here's a pretty picture from avaaz.org to illustrate our race for the stratosphere - of course Canada is the red line:

And if that doesn't make your heart just burst with pride to be a Canadian, how about this? Youth delegates were intimidated by a Canadian security official who implied that they might end up in an Indonesian prison for holding up a sign at an appearance by Baird. And check out the spin by Harper's press secretary Dimitri Soudas near the end of the article. Impressive. Just like Question Period.

Canadian protesters upset with treatment at climate change summit in Bali
By Mike De Souza, CanWest News Service, Published: Wednesday, December 12, 2007
A youth delegation protesting the Harper government's climate change policies say that a Canadian representative intimidated them on Wednesday with a warning about Indonesian prisons to get them away from a news conference held by Environment Minister John Baird.

"He said that we might have free speech in Canada, but we don't know if we have it here, and we wouldn't want to be arrested by the Indonesian police," said Elizabeth McDowell, 24, who travelled to Bali from Vancouver.

McDowell was among a handful of Canadians who held up a sign questioning the government's leadership at the climate change conference while Baird was arriving to speak with reporters.

But she said the federal government representative who is in charge of Canadian security at the summit quickly yelled out to Indonesian police asking them to question the youth.

"He called them over and he was quite aggressive," said McDowell.

A spokesperson for Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the Canadian representative was not part of the government, but defended his actions.

"My understanding is that he was watching out for them and ensuring their safety," said Harper's press secretary Dimitri Soudas. "He was trying to be helpful. That's a shame that they took his kindness towards them and spun it."

Soudas has urged Canadian reporters covering the climate change summit to be skeptical about the dozens of Canadian youth who are promoting action on global warming, since some of them are card-carrying members of the Liberal party.

But McDowell said the accusations suggest the government is scared of criticism, noting that Baird bailed out of a scheduled event the previous night to present his own climate change plan to the conference.

"I think they're a little bit threatened by us," she said. "They're not ready to defend their plan because they don't have one, and they're not ready to defend their actions here."

She stressed that she had no particular political affiliation, adding that the youth coalition is made up of people from all political stripes.

The Indonesian police officer who was called over by the Canadian representative asked the youth a few questions, but soon walked away after determining they were no threat to security.

The youth have complained that they have been excluded from the official Canadian government delegation - along with environmental groups and opposition parties - while industry representatives, including an oilpatch executive, were welcome. Baird has not responded to requests for a meeting with the youth, she said.

Canada's approach "A recipe for failure in Bali"

Read Stéphane Dion's Bali Blog

Stéphane Dion discussed his role at the UNFCCC in Bali as president of the 2005 climate change conference in Montreal in an interview with CPAC, Friday, December 7, 2007.

My role is as a personality who has some networks, some influence, some experience because I've been the president of the 2005 conference of the United Nations on Climate Change....

Nobody disagrees that all the countries need to do something. Where there is a disagreement is when a country like Canada says that if the others don't do something, we will do nothing....

I'm not there to contradict the government as much as I'm there to help each delegation to go in the right direction.

I'm not a negotiator but I'm somebody who cares about the issue. We are speaking about the worst ecological threat humanity is facing and each of us must try to influence it in a good direction.

Here's the video -


Jean Langlois, Director of National Campaigns for Sierra Club Canada, agreed with Dion's assessment that "Canada's approach is a recipe for failure in Bali." Here's video of Langlois' interview with CTV, Tuesday, December 11, 2007.



CTV reports that Dion "has met with Canadian environmentalists -- something the government delegation hasn't done -- and will meet with UN climate boss Yvo de Boer, who had some pointed words about the Canadian position."

Meanwhile, Baird showed the standard of "leadership" we have come to expect from our formerly new government -

Baird was supposed to explain Canada's position at a meeting with non-governmental activists attending the conference. He showed up for the meeting, but quickly left before speaking.

Canadian activists and others waited for the minister to return. But they were later told Baird had to attend negotiations and would not be back.

"The minister who was supposed to address us was AWOL. He ran away," said Olivier Lavoie of the Canadian Youth in Action.

Lavoie said the minister probably did not want to confront young activists critical of Canada's stand.

Yvo de Boer "had some pointed words about the Canadian position. 'I personally find it interesting to hear Canada just a little while ago indicating it would not meet its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol,' de Boer said Monday. 'Now (it's) calling on developing countries to take binding reduction targets.'"

Kyoto Protocol, Montréal 2005 UNFCCC - video retrospective

In preparation for Bali, here's an intro and a video retrospective of some highlights of the 2005 UNFCCC Conference in Montréal, of which Stéphane Dion was President.

United Nations Climate Change Conference
(COP 11 and CMP 1)

28 November to 9 December 2005
Palais des Congrès de Montréal

Canada hosted the first Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in Montreal in conjunction with the eleventh session of the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention.

The conference was an historic event. The Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) met for the 11th time, while marking the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol. At Montreal, the first ever Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol (CMP) ran parallel to the Conference of the Parties to the Convention (COP). The United Nations Climate Change Conference was the largest intergovernmental climate conference since the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997. Some 10,000 participants attended.

The conference attracted unprecedented business interest as a result of two operation trading systems: the pan-European emissions trading scheme and the Clean Development Mechanism, a tool to promote sustainable development and combat climate change.

United Nations Climate Change Conference agrees on future critical steps to tackle climate change
Montreal, 10 December 2005--The United Nations Climate Change Conference closed with the adoption of more than forty decisions that will strengthen global efforts to fight climate change. Reflecting on the success of Montreal 2005, the Conference President, Canadian Environment Minister Stéphane Dion said: “Key decisions have been made in several areas. The Kyoto Protocol has been switched on, a dialogue about the future action has begun, parties have moved forward work on adaptation and advanced the implementation of the regular work programme of the Convention and of the Protocol.”
Source: http://unfccc.int/meetings/cop_11/items/3394.php

Opening plenary
After being formally elected as President, Stéphane Dion speaks at the opening plenary of the 2005 UNFCCC in Montréal. (English/français. 2 parts)


Opening press conference
Stéphane Dion and UNFCCC Acting Executive Secretary Richard Kinley at the press conference for the opening of the 2005 UNFCCC in Montréal. Part 4 ends with the World Wildlife Fund panda delivering a message and a "big cuddly hug" for Président Dion. (English/français. 4 parts)


Closing press conference
Stéphane Dion and Richard Kinley at UNFCCC closing press conference - 6:45 AM on December 10, 2005 after a gruelling all-night session.

"The United Nations Climate Change Conference closed with the adoption of more than forty decisions that will strengthen global efforts to fight climate change. Reflecting on the success of Montreal 2005, the Conference President, Canadian Environment Minister Stéphane Dion said: 'Key decisions have been made in several areas. The Kyoto Protocol has been switched on, a dialogue about the future action has begun, parties have moved forward work on adaptation and advanced the implementation of the regular work programme of the Convention and of the Protocol.'"
http://unfccc.int/meetings/cop_11/items/3394.php
(English/français. 3 parts)

Dion Hailed Saviour of Kyoto Protocol
Canada's Environment Minister [Stéphane Dion] is being hailed an international "hero" who withstood fierce resistance to find agreement to extend mandatory pollution limits on most of the world's worst offenders.

Environmentalists are praising Stéphane Dion, chair of the UN Climate Change Conference, and his advisors for clinching a deal that will commit 35 industrialized nations to deeper greenhouse gas emission reductions when the Kyoto Protocol targets elapse in 2012. The United States and Australia are the only major emitters that refused to sign the pact.

"Stéphane Dion should go down as a world hero for making this happen," says John Bennett, a senior policy advisor for the Sierra Club of Canada. "All credit goes to him and his negotiators."

The deal is the crowning achievement of the two-week international summit in Montreal that finished in the early hours of Dec. 10.
Source: Embassy Magazine, December 14, 2005

(Photo courtesy IISD)

Action on climate change - short-term pain to avoid long-term devastation

In reply to my post on "Rex Murphy's Bali logic," Kevin says:

If you feel that strongly about it you are completely free to donate your own time and money to the cause. The fact of the mater is though that if Canada were to sign on to this while the US and China are clearly not the consequences would be economic suicide. Ontario's manufacturers already suffering under a strong dollar would move to the unregulated jurisdictions and we would loose the jobs. The CO2 would still be produced and we would have nothing to show for our sacrifices. If this argument seems familiar it is the same argument that was made against the free trade agreement. That industry would move to the low cost unregulated producer. For the US this has certainly been the case as they have lost most of their manufacturing sector.

Kevin, we don't have a choice. We have to find a way to reduce emissions or the economic, social, and environmental consequences will be catastrophic. It's a matter of a manageable amount of pain now or total devastation later. Read the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change.

The scientific evidence is now overwhelming: climate change is a serious global threat, and it demands an urgent global response.

This Review has assessed a wide range of evidence on the impacts of climate change and on the economic costs, and has used a number of different techniques to assess costs and risks. From all of these perspectives, the evidence gathered by the Review leads to a simple conclusion: the benefits of strong and early action far outweigh the economic costs of not acting.

Climate change will affect the basic elements of life for people around the world – access to water, food production, health, and the environment. Hundreds of millions of people could suffer hunger, water shortages and coastal flooding as the world warms.

Using the results from formal economic models, the Review estimates that if we don’t act, the overall costs and risks of climate change will be equivalent to losing at least 5% of global GDP each year, now and forever. If a wider range of risks and impacts is taken into account, the estimates of damage could rise to 20% of GDP or more.

In contrast, the costs of action – reducing greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the worst impacts of climate change – can be limited to around 1% of global GDP each year.

The investment that takes place in the next 10-20 years will have a profound effect on the climate in the second half of this century and in the next. Our actions now and over the coming decades could create risks of major disruption to economic and social activity, on a scale similar to those associated with the great wars and the economic depression of the first half of the 20th century. And it will be difficult or impossible to reverse these changes.

So prompt and strong action is clearly warranted. Because climate change is a global problem, the response to it must be international. It must be based on a shared vision of long-term goals and agreement on frameworks that will accelerate action over the next decade, and it must build on mutually reinforcing approaches at national, regional and international level.

Sir Nicholas Stern isn't some greenie-dogooder. He's a hard-headed economist, Head of the UK's Government Economic Service and former World Bank Chief Economist. His review was commissioned by the UK government. On the launch of the report in October 2006, Stern said:

The conclusion of the Review is essentially optimistic. There is still time to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, if we act now and act internationally. Governments, businesses and individuals all need to work together to respond to the challenge. Strong, deliberate policy choices by governments are essential to motivate change.

But the task is urgent. Delaying action, even by a decade or two, will take us into dangerous territory. We must not let this window of opportunity close.

FYI, I do donate my own time and money to the cause, and I do make a lot of personal sacrifices like not using air conditioning in my home at all, keeping my furnace set at 15C all winter, and not logging my woodlot (which would bring in money that I could really use). And I'm a vegetarian. When I can afford to I'd like to convert my home to completely renewable energy sources. While it's important for individuals to contribute, coordination and leadership from government is essential, and can help individuals with their own efforts.

Canadians, including many businesses and industries, are ready - it's only our government and apparently a big chunk of our media that aren't.

Rex Murphy's "Bali logic"

Kevin was kind enough to send a link to Rex Murphy's piece "Bali logic" in response to my previous post on Dion attending the Bali summit to do the job Harper should be doing.

To call Rex Murphy's opinion on climate change "logic" is a bit of a stretch.

Murphy says:

And where is the plain sense in proclaiming a global problem and designing a solution that exempts two of the largest contributors to that problem from the scheme to correct it?

What doesn't make sense is to let the planet be destroyed rather than doing everything we can to slow down and eventually stop the destructive process.

What doesn't make sense is to demand that the world's poorest countries - where many of the people don't have electricity or sufficient food or clean water - move first to solve a problem that the developed countries created.

Canada is one of the most wasteful countries in the world. We're blessed with an abundance of resources that we waste with no thought for the future or even for what's happening right now.

Canada is also blessed with a well-educated and technologically-advanced population - that means we have the resources to contribute toward solving the problem.

We can develop methodologies and technologies to mitigate and slow down climate change, then we can share them with the developing world to help them slow down their emissions. We can sell our technologies to other developed countries and make "megatonnes of money" as Dion says. If we don't, we'll not only be left with a severely degraded environment, we'll harm our economy because other developed countries will take advantage of the huge opportunities available in developing and selling green technologies.

What people like Murphy don't seem to be able to get through their heads is that this isn't just some cute little political football we're talking about. This is our entire world. This is everything. Destroy it and we have no place left to live.

It's not only unethical and immoral to do nothing, it's astoundingly stupid.