Stephane Dion's Conference Call
Well it looks like my blog is finally getting noticed. Stephane Dion agreed to do a conference call with several Liberal bloggers from across the country. Last week he did it with declared Dion supporters, while this week with undecided supporters. Due to my busy work schedule, I was only able to participate in the first half of the conference call.
On the conference call, there were Liberal bloggers from different regions of Canada, myself being someone from the West Coast. First Stephane Dion gave an introduction. I was generally pleased with his emphasis on his experience, achievements, and his vision. While he didn't delve too much into specifics, I generally like what I heard. After that, each blogger got to ask one question. The first question from a blogger from London, Ontario was on the role of the private sector in health care. Stephane Dion mentioned the importance of upholding the Canada Health Act, but at the same time said the current growth of spending in health care is unsustainable long-term. I was quite pleased that he was willing to look at the idea of major reforms to help save health care. He off course disagreed with Klein's Third Way (which I support personally), but I am glad he is at least open to making reforms, even if they don't go as far as I want. Most importantly he recognizes that throwing more money at the problem won't solve it.
My Question was on the Kyoto Protocol and how he would achieve it and could Canada meet its targets. He seemed to suggest it was possible to meet our targets, although I am skeptical of this. He did however say the focus must be on putting pressure on industry to move to greener technologies. He also pointed out how countries like Sweden have not only met their Kyoto targets, but have done well economically by creating a large sector in exporting green technologies. This could be especially important with emerging economies such as China and India. I initially opposed the Kyoto Protocol since I was worried about its affects on the economy, especially in the province of Alberta where most my family comes from. However, if we can meet our targets without hurting the economy, then I fully support it. I believe global warming does exist and we need to deal with it, but without harming our economy. The fact he has a plan to achieve both: sustainable environment and economic growth is definitely a positive.
The final question before I had to depart was on democratic reform. On his website he has written a fair bit on this topic. He mentioned possibilities such as the German system of Mixed PR as well as senate reform. However, he did mention that this needs more debate. I am skeptical of PR since our experiences with minority governments has generally not been good, but since they have worked well elsewhere, perhaps maybe the problem lies with our politicians and their unwillingness to work with those of different political persuasions. I fully agree that BC and Alberta are under-represented in the senate, which I know Paul Martin mentioned and I think before we start electing senators this should be fixed.
On the whole I was pleased with what I saw, but I still haven't yet made a decision. I can say though to anyone from Stephane Dion's campaign reading this that whoever I do end up endorsing, I will fully back Dion should he be chosen as leader. I know he has quite a bit of support here in BC.
On a side note, I know there has been a lot of talk about Joe Volpe's sketchy campaign contributions. Let me just say that while Joe Volpe didn't break the election act, what happened certainly went against the spirit of it. I think if we are serious about winning the next election, all our candidates need to stop this kind of stuff otherwise Canadians will conclude we haven't learned anything from our defeat.
On the conference call, there were Liberal bloggers from different regions of Canada, myself being someone from the West Coast. First Stephane Dion gave an introduction. I was generally pleased with his emphasis on his experience, achievements, and his vision. While he didn't delve too much into specifics, I generally like what I heard. After that, each blogger got to ask one question. The first question from a blogger from London, Ontario was on the role of the private sector in health care. Stephane Dion mentioned the importance of upholding the Canada Health Act, but at the same time said the current growth of spending in health care is unsustainable long-term. I was quite pleased that he was willing to look at the idea of major reforms to help save health care. He off course disagreed with Klein's Third Way (which I support personally), but I am glad he is at least open to making reforms, even if they don't go as far as I want. Most importantly he recognizes that throwing more money at the problem won't solve it.
My Question was on the Kyoto Protocol and how he would achieve it and could Canada meet its targets. He seemed to suggest it was possible to meet our targets, although I am skeptical of this. He did however say the focus must be on putting pressure on industry to move to greener technologies. He also pointed out how countries like Sweden have not only met their Kyoto targets, but have done well economically by creating a large sector in exporting green technologies. This could be especially important with emerging economies such as China and India. I initially opposed the Kyoto Protocol since I was worried about its affects on the economy, especially in the province of Alberta where most my family comes from. However, if we can meet our targets without hurting the economy, then I fully support it. I believe global warming does exist and we need to deal with it, but without harming our economy. The fact he has a plan to achieve both: sustainable environment and economic growth is definitely a positive.
The final question before I had to depart was on democratic reform. On his website he has written a fair bit on this topic. He mentioned possibilities such as the German system of Mixed PR as well as senate reform. However, he did mention that this needs more debate. I am skeptical of PR since our experiences with minority governments has generally not been good, but since they have worked well elsewhere, perhaps maybe the problem lies with our politicians and their unwillingness to work with those of different political persuasions. I fully agree that BC and Alberta are under-represented in the senate, which I know Paul Martin mentioned and I think before we start electing senators this should be fixed.
On the whole I was pleased with what I saw, but I still haven't yet made a decision. I can say though to anyone from Stephane Dion's campaign reading this that whoever I do end up endorsing, I will fully back Dion should he be chosen as leader. I know he has quite a bit of support here in BC.
On a side note, I know there has been a lot of talk about Joe Volpe's sketchy campaign contributions. Let me just say that while Joe Volpe didn't break the election act, what happened certainly went against the spirit of it. I think if we are serious about winning the next election, all our candidates need to stop this kind of stuff otherwise Canadians will conclude we haven't learned anything from our defeat.
posted by Monkey Loves to Fight at 8:28 PM
7 Comments:
You said you were concerned that Kyoto could hurt our economy...
Funny, others, including myself, are worried that no Kyoto (and a slippery slope of half-by-half measures that come from the flow charts of the big polluters) will hurt the economy. A planet so toxic would be a darn hard place to make a profit, Miles.
Giving a billion dollars to Russia will help the enviroment?
You said you were concerned that Kyoto could hurt our economy
My initial concern was more that Alberta would have to bare the brunt. I know many of my family members still remember the National Energy Program, so my worry is if we bring in another thing similiar to the NEP, this time Alberta would separate.
Now I read the speech by Paul Martin in 2002 during the debate on Kyoto Protocol and he made clear that it would not hit anyone industry or province too hard. In fact had he instead of Chretien been PM, I likely would have support it as I feel Martin was far more sensitive to Western Canadian issues than Chretien ever was.
Giving a billion dollars to Russia will help the enviroment?
No that won't help the environment, but doing nothing as the Conservatives propose won't either.
Have you read this yet?
He isn't perfect, but from what I saw, I was quite impressed. This is a guy who you need to listen to make a speech rather than answer questions. He is a very thoughtful and impressive man.
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