Absent a Captain Canuck, Quebec's Jean Charest Takes the Stage

On a day when the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Chage was quoted dismissing Canada as "not at the table" in climate negotiatons, Quebec Premier Jean Charest took to the stage at Climate Week in New York.

Flanking actor Hugh Jackman (with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair standing on the other side), Charest looked both oddly out of place - and right in his element.

The latter part is understandable. He has been on this file from the beginning. He attended the Rio summit in 1992 as Canada's Environment Minister. As the Quebec Premier since 2003, he has been a national leader in setting reasonably progressive climate policy.

On Monday, he stressed the importance of that action, in Canada and around the world, calling for leadership and engagement from what he characterized as "sub-national states."

“We have passed the tipping point, but I don’t believe that we have passed the point of no return.”

That was Al Gore Saturday, trying to reassure the 250 volunteers who had come to Montreal to learn to spread The Inconvenient Truth.

Saturday was the serious work day at The Climate Change-Canada’s first training session, with Al Gore leading a diverse and clearly committed group of volunteers through his Academy Award-winning presentation, slide by slide.

Al Gore strode into Montreal Friday evening and the city embraced him as one of its own. In fact, I can’t quite imagine that he gets quite this kind of welcome anywhere else.

First of all, his visit was sponsored by La Presse, which guaranteed a pretty compelling advance. And if the front page coverage wasn’t impressive enough, the full-colour special section on climate change would have to turn your head.