So Mr. Stephen Harper fancies himself as Mr. Environment. Well, begrudgingly I have to accept Mr. Harper's inclusion into the land of the caring; he is the leader of country and all. But as we all sit back and watch as our politicians embarrass themselves and trip over their own words as they rush to be at the front of 'this issue' (as if everything that is and isn't wrong with our planet can be summed up into one problem) we have a very serious question to ask ourselves-out of them all- who really cares? Who, out of all our leaders, is coming to this collective realization from a place of earnest and forthright determination to turn around this trillion tonne locomotive that is climate change? Can the conservatives really fool us into believing that they can claim they have the moral compass on 'this issue'? No way. The conservative party may have within its ranks people that really understand what is at stake and have been involved in environmental campaigns and understand the deep and rich literature from environmental thinkers. But the party at it's most fundamental core is and always has been at odds with the environmental movement and just does not have the historical and intellectual capacity within it to make clear, committed and correct decisions about how to react to what scientists have only been telling us for almost 30 years.
The Liberals are another story. The cynical folks out there will say, as the conservative attack ads have been so basely saying that 'they had their chance and they blew it'. Well, I completely agree and disagree with this. Yes, the Liberal party was all talk, for sure. They made great speeches and commitments and had the balls in the first place to sign-on to the Kyoto Protocol, but that's essentially where they stopped. The Liberal party was asleep at the wheel from the mid-90's on, living off the hog created by the massive structural adjustment that Paul Martin unleashed on the country that we are still reeling from. I believe that it comes down to a question of leadership again, and Chretien was never an environmentalist, never listened and never got it. He was the best political opportunist this country has ever seen and he snake charmed the country into thinking we were doing something. But, we did NOTHING. The Green Plan was something that was kicked around but ignored-(which by the way someone should be dusting off as a great start for the Government on 'this issue'.-speaking of walking the talk-could you imagine what would happen if the gobernant started do everything through the lens of the environment?)
So if Chretien didn't get it, and Paul Martin was too worried about being every ones friend and trying to put a thousand mile wall between himself and his past-so of course got nothing done, what do we make of Mr. Dion? The love-in is over and the hard questions are now deserved. Recently, and I mean going back to when the Liberals were in power Mr. Dion showed himself to be quite adapt at managing the Environment 'file'-(again it's hilarious that in government speak things like Health care and the Environment are a 'file' or a 'portfolio'.) He impressed many with his tough talk and astute analysis of all the issues and was a leader at major environmental conferences. I would on the whole defend his so called 'inaction' while under the charge of Chretien because he was not brought in for that work-he was brought in to try and put a lid on Quebec separatism-to which a great extent he did! He has given us the Clarity act and made things a great deal more difficult for separatists to fuck-up this country. Unlike Harper with his latest overture into tampering with definitions of a Nation and trying to win over the hearts and minds of Quebecois with a very dangerous game. Dion is a social academic and is educated in the rules of power and how one can move a society through great times of change. I believe he has the tools and is coming from a place of honesty. It is with some regret that Iggy didn't win when it comes to this 'issue'; because though on the whole Ignatieff was more divisive in terms of leadership style he is a brilliant environmental thinker and will have to be charged with a great deal of the work, if the Liberals can secure the government again. I trust the Liberal party more to get it and do more that the absolutely WEAK proposals set forth by the Conservatives. Yes, Mr. Harper, we have to be 'realistic', but the clock is ticking, we have been told it's already too late so lets stop dickin' around.
P.S.
Overall, an approach to making environmental change work, it will require a complete change in how our parliament works. The reason I didn't mention Jack Layton is that the NDP are not a power party, they can't run the country-plain and simple. Under proportional representation, the their talents and philosophy could be a great benefit then we'd be talking.
So we are really get into the thick of making a record. We just finished pre-production, which was hours of WORK. Rock is WORK, followed by pizza, beer and sleep-in that order. We started with about 27 songs and whilted it down to 33 and have 3 more in development. We're in the demo stage which is kinda of both energizing and scary as shit as you hear back the first drafts of what your heart and soul wants to say. I'm really starting to live the album, much to the consternation of those close to me. It's what I think about when I go to sleep, wake up and those quiet moments during the day. We're hopefully going to be tracking-putting it down as they say next month, but we still have to tell which kids are coming for the ride right now, and which ones have to wait on the bench or simply tell 'your just not good enough'-let the battles begin. We are a real strong minded bunch and if your in the room when we start talking song chopping-run, don't walk. This blog I'm going to dedicate from here until the end of the road to keeping all you who give a damn updates and a window into the life of an indie band making what they hope will be fantastic album.
