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The following letter was sent to the Calgary Herald on December 17, 2006.

December 17, 2006

Climate Change

To the Editor,

Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s head-in-the-sand stance on climate change is appalling, and I’m embarrassed – though not surprised – that he was elected in my own city of Calgary. Mr. Harper criticizes Stéphane Dion and Jack Layton for suggesting tax breaks for oil companies making record profits while operating in Alberta’s oilsands, because Mr. Dion and the NDP don’t represent Albertans and westerners.

Well, Mr. Harper, neither do you represent me. You’ve ignored the several letters I’ve written in the past two years before and since you became Prime Minister, and you continue to ignore climate change, the greatest challenge to our survival on this planet. Tragically, it is other species less mobile and adaptable than ourselves who are feeling the impacts first.

Unfortunately, Mr. Harper’s Environment Minister Rona Ambrose does anything but represent polar bears, penguins, or boreal forests in the legislature. Like her boss, she wants mainly to pave a smooth path for the steadily decreasing number of companies who want to do business as usual, as if climate change didn’t exist. But it does, and I applaud Mr. Dion and Mr. Layton for beginning to take the issue seriously.

Sincerely yours,

Roger Gagné
Calgary, Alberta