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This makes my blood boil. 
Alberta's the only thing keeping Canada's economy afloat right now. Dion's supreme arrogance astounds me -- Alberta needs to repair its "reputation" in the eyes of the Quebecois and people from Ontario? Get ****ed. ****.
Dion grabs bull by horns
Liberal leader pitches carbon tax plan as a way for Alberta to redeem its 'damaged' reputation
Allan Woods
Ottawa Bureau
CALGARY–The federal Liberal leader drew on his past as a national-unity fighter to pitch his carbon tax plan to Albertans, saying the risk to Canada's future is as grave now as it was during the 1995 referendum.
Stéphane Dion said he was touched by the passion Alberta residents showed for Quebec, and an indivisible Canada, in those heady days when he was recruited into then-prime minister Jean Chrétien's cabinet to take on separatists.
Although Dion's personal reputation in Quebec has not fully recovered, the country is now restive and the threat of separation is low, the former university professor said.
"We have a united Canada, a Canada built on clarity and mutual respect. We did it with the courage, the determination, of a cowboy from Calgary," Dion told Liberal party supporters yesterday.
With environmental concerns high in Canadians' minds, Alberta is now the focus of so much political attention, and Dion said his plan is the only one that can repair the "damaged" reputation of the oil-producing province that is responsible for one-third of the country's greenhouse gas emissions.
"To me, it's important for the world to know how much Albertans care about the environment, how much you are green and you want to do the right thing," he said.
"I can't accept that your reputation is damaged, as it is now."
The Liberal party's green plan involves taxing carbon-based fossil fuels, collecting $15 billion in revenue, and distributing the money to Canadians in the form of targeted tax cuts. It will have the greatest impact on the oil and gas industries, though Dion said foreign companies, which buy 46 per cent of Canadian oil, will end up making large contributions to the federal purse.
"Not a penny will go in the revenue of the government. It will be the law of the land, and the auditor general will certify this year after year after year," he said.
But the good-natured effort to cozy up to a province where his party was shut out in the last election has been hampered both by suspicions of the Liberal party generally, and the comments of one of Dion's most outspoken MPs.
Halton MP Garth Turner was forced to issue a backhanded retraction to an assertion he made on his blog that the people of western Canada who put regional interests above national concerns are like Quebec separatists: "Self-aggrandizing, hostile, me-first, greedy, macho, selfish and balkanizing."
Turner later said he didn't want to make the party's task in Alberta more difficult than it already is, but that he would not "lay down before people who openly advocate ripping the country apart."
The federal Tories seized on Turner's comments, calling for an apology. Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach also took offence to the "misinformation" that the federal Liberals and most environment groups are circulating on the province's environment policies.
"Stéphane Dion can say what he likes about Alberta, but Alberta is leading the way on the environment," said Tom Olsen, a spokesperson for the premier.
Still, Stelmach recently launched a $25-million campaign to "rebrand" the province, improve its environmental reputation, and reach out to workers and tourists.
Dion said his reputation, and the merits of his carbon tax plan, are also under attack by the Conservative government. The Tories have launched television ads decrying Dion's proposed "tax on everything." Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned Dion would "screw the country" with his carbon tax.
"He's panicking. He doesn't know what to say," said the Liberal leader, who has challenged the Prime Minister to a public debate on the issue.
"(The Conservatives) don't know how to react by a plan well received not only by the green people, not only by the economists, but more and more by our hardworking families everywhere in Canada."
Harper was also in Calgary yesterday, before departing for G-8 meetings in Tokyo, but did not speak to reporters.
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister's Office said Friday that Harper encourages the opposition to explain their climate-change plans, confident it will demonstrate that the government has the only feasible green plan.
"The more they talk, the better it is for us," said Dimitri Soudas.
Liberal leader pitches carbon tax plan as a way for Alberta to redeem its 'damaged' reputation
Allan Woods
Ottawa Bureau
CALGARY–The federal Liberal leader drew on his past as a national-unity fighter to pitch his carbon tax plan to Albertans, saying the risk to Canada's future is as grave now as it was during the 1995 referendum.
Stéphane Dion said he was touched by the passion Alberta residents showed for Quebec, and an indivisible Canada, in those heady days when he was recruited into then-prime minister Jean Chrétien's cabinet to take on separatists.
Although Dion's personal reputation in Quebec has not fully recovered, the country is now restive and the threat of separation is low, the former university professor said.
"We have a united Canada, a Canada built on clarity and mutual respect. We did it with the courage, the determination, of a cowboy from Calgary," Dion told Liberal party supporters yesterday.
With environmental concerns high in Canadians' minds, Alberta is now the focus of so much political attention, and Dion said his plan is the only one that can repair the "damaged" reputation of the oil-producing province that is responsible for one-third of the country's greenhouse gas emissions.
"To me, it's important for the world to know how much Albertans care about the environment, how much you are green and you want to do the right thing," he said.
"I can't accept that your reputation is damaged, as it is now."
The Liberal party's green plan involves taxing carbon-based fossil fuels, collecting $15 billion in revenue, and distributing the money to Canadians in the form of targeted tax cuts. It will have the greatest impact on the oil and gas industries, though Dion said foreign companies, which buy 46 per cent of Canadian oil, will end up making large contributions to the federal purse.
"Not a penny will go in the revenue of the government. It will be the law of the land, and the auditor general will certify this year after year after year," he said.
But the good-natured effort to cozy up to a province where his party was shut out in the last election has been hampered both by suspicions of the Liberal party generally, and the comments of one of Dion's most outspoken MPs.
Halton MP Garth Turner was forced to issue a backhanded retraction to an assertion he made on his blog that the people of western Canada who put regional interests above national concerns are like Quebec separatists: "Self-aggrandizing, hostile, me-first, greedy, macho, selfish and balkanizing."
Turner later said he didn't want to make the party's task in Alberta more difficult than it already is, but that he would not "lay down before people who openly advocate ripping the country apart."
The federal Tories seized on Turner's comments, calling for an apology. Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach also took offence to the "misinformation" that the federal Liberals and most environment groups are circulating on the province's environment policies.
"Stéphane Dion can say what he likes about Alberta, but Alberta is leading the way on the environment," said Tom Olsen, a spokesperson for the premier.
Still, Stelmach recently launched a $25-million campaign to "rebrand" the province, improve its environmental reputation, and reach out to workers and tourists.
Dion said his reputation, and the merits of his carbon tax plan, are also under attack by the Conservative government. The Tories have launched television ads decrying Dion's proposed "tax on everything." Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned Dion would "screw the country" with his carbon tax.
"He's panicking. He doesn't know what to say," said the Liberal leader, who has challenged the Prime Minister to a public debate on the issue.
"(The Conservatives) don't know how to react by a plan well received not only by the green people, not only by the economists, but more and more by our hardworking families everywhere in Canada."
Harper was also in Calgary yesterday, before departing for G-8 meetings in Tokyo, but did not speak to reporters.
A spokesperson for the Prime Minister's Office said Friday that Harper encourages the opposition to explain their climate-change plans, confident it will demonstrate that the government has the only feasible green plan.
"The more they talk, the better it is for us," said Dimitri Soudas.
Alberta's the only thing keeping Canada's economy afloat right now. Dion's supreme arrogance astounds me -- Alberta needs to repair its "reputation" in the eyes of the Quebecois and people from Ontario? Get ****ed. ****.
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