Brian Mulroney feted as the greenest PM.

[Swede]

Former prime minister Brian Mulroney basked in a green glow of admiration Thursday evening as he made his first public appearance in Ottawa since leaving office 13 years ago.

Mulroney was greeted by a standing ovation at the historic Chateau Laurier hotel by a who's who crowd of environmentalists, business executives, diplomats and politicians even before he was praised as the greenest prime minister in Canadian history.

Speaker after speaker lauded Mulroney-era legislation and initiatives to protect the environment.

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=f53b771b-f98a-46ec-a5a3-d6d1b0dc0728&k=52063

[tuvor]

1. Is that "greenest" or "least un-green"?

Just wondering, since there's so much surprise at the decision.

[V. Kid]

2. Unfortunatley its probably true...

...it didn't seem like the enviroment was that big of an issue before he came around, and Chretien and Martin didn't do much of anything on it, so the fact that he went to Rio and signed a few acid rain control protocols with the Americans probably does make him the "least un-green" PM.

[Pierre Trudeau]

3. I'm skeptical, but hey...

I was around for the entire Mulroney government, and I do find it a bit of a stretch that he is now considered the "greenest" PM.

I would have chosen Trudeau (who came in second). Chretien was a good PM in many respects, but didn't do much for the environment.
As for Paul Martin, he probably had lunch with an environmentalist (hey, he tried :eyes: ).

But despite my skepticism, I can't see this award as anything but a positive development. Whether or not Brian was really the greenest or not, the fact is that he has embraced the distinction, and furthermore, it puts pressure on the Conservatives to live up to his legacy (no matter how meagre).

The phenomenon of Conservatives (other than Joe Clark or David Orchard) embracing environmental causes is new and unusual, considering their past behaviour, but I predict we'll be seeing a lot more of it in the near future. Especially if we voters continue to remind politicians of all stripes that we consider this a crucial issue. Don't let the Cons forget that "standing up for Canada" means standing up for the environment too.

After all, when you really think of it, what could be more "conservative" than conserving the environment?


P.S. although I'm doubtful that Mulroney was the greenest PM, I am quite confident that Ontario's greenest Premier was conservative Bill Davis.

[ClusterFreak]

4. It was a sickening display...and brought back a flood of bad memories...

...watching that unctuous fuck up there, rhyming off all of his supposed accomplishments in Canada/U.S. relations during his reign of terror. "When I was Prime Minister"....how many times did he say that? Lecturing about how to deal with the Americans, and praising Harper for his 'new' approach. Yeah, if Peter MacKay playing kissy ass with Condo-lies-a ("I've watched :blush:your career for years!) and Harper going for a car and a copter ride with Chimpy....if that is progress.....we're all fucked. It's funny, watching Lyin' Brian up there last night, I had forgotten just how much I loathed the man. Then he opened that chicken's ass of a mouth of his.:grr:

[MrPrax]

5. Bravo...!!

Well put...you sound as pissed off at that scummy pukefest as I was....

Corporate Land Rapers Spin Earth Day with some invented 'Green' award given to the Last Tory PM?
and it's on TV?
and Rick Mercer is hosting it?
and Harper is hanging out at it?
and it gets wide play in the media the next morning?
and WTF?

It was a weird trip whatever it was...can't wait till next year's show...?

[ClusterFreak]

6. Yeah you said it...

The Rick Mercer thing was particularly disturbing. Did you catch when he concluded his routine by saying something like..."Brian was considered the "greenest" PM, only two letters away from "greatest", and perhaps not even that far off." Something like that anyway.
I shuddered.

[laundry_queen]

7. EW!

I'm glad I missed it. :puke:

[Canuckistanian]

8. I heard Elizabeth May comment on this

She said that the award was given by a group of mostly businessmen. Only a few real environmentalists got to vote.

May said she wasn't asked.

It's like a plumber's convention giving out a hockey award.

Doesn't mean a damn thing.

[iverglas]

9. that's interesting

... because May had just announced her run for the Green Party leadership ... and as soon as Lloyd or Peter or whomever I was watching said "and you'll be surprised by who some of" the people giving the award were, I said "Elizabeth May, and ask me whether I'm surprised". Given the cozy relationship between the Green Party and the PCP/CPC and all.

She certainly was front and centre applauding him on camera.

http://www.halifaxlive.com/content/view/611/2/

To determine the winner of the Greenest PM award, Corporate Knights polled twelve prominent Canadians including 10 environmentalists (such as Elizabeth May and Monte Hummel), one historian and one former Federal Environment Minister on the question of which Prime Minister accomplished the most to improve Canada's environment.

Maybe she voted nay?

Nope.

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/April2006/19/c5603.html

Green PM Jury Panel

Ken Ogilvie, Pollution Probe
V=Trudeau

Elizabeth May, Sierra Club
V=Mulroney

Monte Hummel, WWF
V=Mulroney

David Runnalls, IISD
V=Mulroney

David Boyd, Author: Sustainability within a Generation
V=Mulroney, Chretien, Trudeau

Liz White, Environmental Voters
V=Mulroney

Maude Barlow, Council of Canadians
V= No one

Jim Fulton, David Suzuki Foundation
V= No one

Rick Smith, Environment Defence Canada
V=Laurier

Desmond Morton, McGill
V=Bennett

Sheila Copps, Former Federal Environment Minister
V= MacDonald

Beatrice Olivastri, Friends of the Earth
V=Trudeau =0

[Canuckistanian]

10. Really? Then she was spinning in that radio interview, then

She claimed that she was "just asked of her opinion" and dismissed the awarders as "just a group of businessmen".

I wished I had recorded that. In the radio interview she gave a totally different impression.

Very interesting indeed.

[iverglas]

11. it is curious

I didn't hear anything she said about it, but that news release also includes:

A program of speeches will begin at 7 pm and continue to approximately 8 pm. It will include remarks by Rick Mercer, Elizabeth May (representing the selection jury), the Hon. Jean Charest (speaking as a former federal Environment Minister), Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and former Prime Minister Mulroney.

It does make what else she said look rather like spin. (And Rick Mercer? Being paid, I hope.)

Must also admit I'd never heard of these http://www.corporateknights.ca/ people.
And the site doesn't tell me anything about who they are.

Oh, here it is: http://www.corporateknights.ca/info/
Well, they've got Ed as an emeritus member of the board ...

[Canuckistanian]

12. Wow. it's like two completely different stories

I heard the interview on a local Ottawa CBC show. I guess she was trying to put forward a different face for a different audience.

She really tried to make a distinction between "the environmental community" and "these businessmen".

Thanks for the links, I'll check 'em out.

[IntravenousDemilo]

13. David Orchard's reply (remember, Muldoon's boys roughed Orchard up once)

This was emailed to me by his brother Grant. A slightly truncated version of it was in today's Globe & Mail.



DUBIOUS MULRONEY LEGACY
by David Orchard
-----------------------------------------------

It was astonishing to learn recently that former Prime Minister Brian
Mulroney has been named the greenest prime minister in Canadian history
(“’Engage the Americans,’ vintage Mulroney lectures,” Globe and Mail,
April 21, 2006.)

A magazine called Corporate Knights hosted a gala dinner in Mr.
Mulroney’s honour in Ottawa. Several “environmental leaders,” some of
them almost overcome with emotion, we read, explained why he should be
so acclaimed.

All of this has left some of us who have laboured in the environmental
trenches for most of our lives with a few questions.

Was it not Brian Mulroney and his government that negotiated and signed
the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement which has had such far-reaching and
devastating impacts on the environment? This agreement transferred a
large slice of our sovereignty over energy and water resources to U.S.
industry with all its unfolding environmental implications. (Is the tar
sands project not one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas
emissions on the planet?)

Was it not the Mulroney government that negotiated the NAFTA with its
unprecedented Chapter 11 provision that allows American corporations to
sue Canada for any law which they feel harms their business and
contravenes the spirit of NAFTA? Has not NAFTA been successfully used to
overturn several Canadian environmental laws -- the Ethyl MMT case and
the S.D. Myers hazardous waste case, to mention just two -- and placed
such a chill on all levels of government in Canada that any new laws,
environmental and otherwise, are now carefully vetted to make sure they
are “NAFTA-compatible”?

Did not the FTA and NAFTA both state that they take precedence over all
other international treaties, including environmental ones, to which
Canada is signatory?

Have these environmental impacts of the FTA and NAFTA not been
sufficiently clear for the “environmentalists” who gathered in Ottawa to
kiss Mr. Mulroney’s ring?

Just asking.

[tuvor]

14. There was a typo in that headline.

Should be, "Brian Mulroney Fetid"

[Spazito]

15. LOL and too true, he certainly nauseates me n/t

[Canuck55]

16. I'd say technically...

...you would have to go with Sir MacDonald as the 'greenest' PM ever since he had the least chance to fuck up the environment.