HOW DARE HE ELEVATE PEOPLE OVER POLAR BEARS?:

Harper has changed Canada's progressive image (Les Whittington, 7/10/08, Toronto Star)

Like Bush, Harper has rejected the stiff emission-reduction goals of the Kyoto Protocol as unattainable and an unfair burden on industrialized nations competing with fast-growing economies like India and China that are not committed to similar cutbacks.

And Harper, like his U.S. counterpart, has sought to keep his country's negotiated climate change commitments to a minimum.

A senior Canadian official privy to this year's closed-door G8 talks in Japan told the media that Harper succeeded in helping to convince the other participants that a joint agreement to cut greenhouse gases should stick to realistic targets and steer clear of "aspirational" goals. [...]

Harper used this G8 meeting to push two foreign policy priorities – Afghanistan and human rights. He told the media that in the discussions, G8 leaders expressed unanimous support for the effort by Canada and other countries to bring stability to Afghanistan in the face of a Taliban insurgency.

Conservatives achieve, liberals aspire.

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 10, 2008 7:55 AM