Asymmetrical Information

The last time I was in Canadia, about a year ago, there were tons of billboards and TV ads about their recent adoption of the Kyoto Protocols. Guess that's working out real well for 'em.

OK that's funny. But the article fingers the lack of federal air quality controls as the culprit. That can't jive with the Libertarian in you.

The article doesn't finger the lack of fed intervention - the executive director of the Commission did, albeit "probably." Which is to say, of course he blamed the lack, because his quest is obviously for more regulation. How much toxic emissions can be blamed on Paul Martin? And I don't mean by his governance.

Er ... shouldn't that be "Crazy, eh?"

More evidence that holier-than-thou Canaduh is a continental polluter. Maybe it's time for a regime change.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/environment/centuryofslag.html

Why is anybody surprised about the double standard Canada seems to be using left and right. What has Canda ever done? Except for stealing British Columbia from us and sending us Pamela Anderson and Michael Moore

You guys are just obsessing about the facts because you can't stand the truth. Don't you get it? We (Canadians) signed the international document thingy. Therefore we are the good guys.

It isn't about who cleaned up the air. We can always get the Americans to do that.

Could we please, please, please stop this rumour that Michael Moore is Canadian!!!

OT, but death to Islam please.

If you read the report, on a per capita basis, the US is a larger producer of total toxic emissions than Canada.

Whenever the press only talks about percentages, one should always be suspect. Sure the US has reduced emissions faster but every day it is polluting more than is Canada.

The report should have been headlined "US still producing higher emissions but is closing the gap with Canada".

Or... "Canada increases emissions, closes gap with US".

Perhaps, Fact Checker, although the "Fair and Balanced" headline would read:

"US 'Toxic' Emissions on steep decline, Canadian Emissions on the rise. US soon to surpass Kyoto-signing Canada in overall air quality."

Oh, I forgot, you don't get "Fair and Balanced" news in Canada. Heh.

Just a point of clarification - these are toxic pollutants covered in the article. Kyoto regulates CO2 which is neither a pollutant nor toxic but a gas necessary for life.

Well, if the NDP wins the upcoming federal election they'll pump billions into wind power, so hey - problem solved.

And thank you Paul for the much-needed reminder that even if Kyoto worked it would have had zero-impact on air pollution.

Can someone clarify the system actually used in Canada? If, as Norman claims, the director is biased in favor of federal regulations, couldn't that position logically follow from the failure of a voluntary system to reduce emissions in Ontario?

The government in Ontario is controlled by the Liberals, the same party that has controlled the federal government for the last 12 years. While it is a federal system, party control is somewhat better than it is here, since it's a parliamentary system. But since Ontario is the Liberal party's strongest power base (it and Quebec, where the Bloc Quebecois is powerful, have the lion's share of Canada's population), it seems unlikely that tighter federal control would produce significant change in policy.

That said, they do have lower per-capita emissions than we do. But given their reputation as more environmentally concious than Americans, seeing an increase in toxic emissions where we've produced a steep drop was very surprising.

Ms. Galt - didn't mean their system of government (though appreciate the info), was more interested in their environmental regulations (or lack thereof). If they do indeed use a voluntary approach, and businesses (which, in my view, seldom act in the best interest of society as a whole) are not decreasing emissions, I think that information would be striking. I am not certain that businesses in Canada have the reputation as being more environmentally conscious than businesses elsewhere.

I'm not sure where the impression that Canadians are more environmentally conscious than Americans comes from. We do have large amounts of beautiful wilderness areas, but that is more a natural result of a vast landmass combined with a small population than of any careful stewardship. Just look at our fisheries industry for evidence we can screw up the environment as much as anyone else.

Jane's knowledge of Canadian politics is quite impressive. I should point out though, that the Liberals took power provincially in Ontario quite recently - it was governed by the Conservatives for most of the last decade. And while the provincial and federal Liberals are closely related they are not technically the same party, and Prime Minister Paul Martin is currently doing his best to distance himself from the suddenly-unpopular Ontario government in the run-up to the upcoming federal election.

Forgive me for any anti-Canadianism here, but Canadians seem to me to have a desire to view the whole country as one big, happy family. They tend to expect their corporations to act like members of that family, rather than profit seeking entities. This produces a number of odd results, one of them being the Canadian approach towards environmental regulation.

Jane - are you then suggesting that given the odd result of the emissions increase is due to Canadian corporations existing as profit seeking enterprises? The following conclusion from that line of thinking, assuming that the Canadian system of controls IS voluntary (still didn't get details, and obviously too lazy to google it myself), would be that government regulations DO act as a positive force, at least WRT the environment.

funny, look how cnn spins it: http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/06/03/gen.us.pollutions.ap/index.html

nope, can't say anything bad about canada or anything good about the eeeevul us

Michael Moore isn't Canadian, for that matter he isn't even human. He's a bioengineered twinky eating machine.

More International News

It's funny. France and Germany's presidents are furious with the many EU nations that are cutting taxes. HA HA HA. Those many EU nations are just really destroying international relations with France and Germany (the world as the left puts it). :)

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