Canada Dismissed as a Player at COP15 Talks
Say Goodbye, Stephen In a last-ditch attempt to salvage something useful from the COP15 climate talks, U.S. President Barack Obama joined a group of world leaders in Copenhagen today.
Here's who was on the list:
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown
French President Nicolas Sarkozy
Danish Prime Minister Lars L. Rasmussen
German Chancellor Angela Merkel
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
Bangladesh Prime Minister Fakruddin Ahmed
Brazilian President Luiz Lula da Silva
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
South African President Jacob Zuma
Mexican President Felipe Calderon
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak
Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe
Among the G8, only Canada and Italy are missing.
Among the top 10 greenhouse gas-emitting nations in the world, only Canada (#8) and Italy (#10) are missing. Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice has said at every press conference to date that Canada is "working constructively toward a deal in Copenhagen." Do you think?
Maybe being snubbed by his new best friend Obama will finally convince Harper that if he stays the course he will be marginalized. I am also very hopeful that this will galvanized the Canadian public and the opposition to put real pressure on these clowns to do something meaningful.
Fingers crossed.
F
Canadian PM's have always done better at home when they distanced themselves from US Presidents. It's a psychology thing with Canadians. We don't want to be Americans. On top of that, Obama was a rock star 12 months ago, but now he's lost a lot of that. (His TV appearences get low ratings now and the networks are getting tired of him) He's had the fastest first year popularity drop in history.
After the bust that was Copenhagen, there will be almost no pressure on Harper. Obama and the Democrats meanwhile, expended precious political capital by promising so much and delivering zilch at Copenhagen.
http://www.ginandtacos.com/2009/12/15/saint-ronnie-vs-secret-muslin/
Curiously, Obama is on the same track as Reagan.
NEED TO KNOW HAVE TO GOO.
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