President Obama and Prime Minister Harper will meet in Ottawa this Thursday. Let's urge them to talk seriously about working together on climate, and also to talk seriously about other urgent environmental issues our two nations need to work on together. Front and center on my list is a commitment to rescue the Great Lakes from continued ecological breakdown (and climate is a factor). Protecting the Arctic, facing the destructive legacy of oil sand development are on my list too.

We need bold strategies, and we need each other to make them succeed, and we need to get started as soon as they shake hands on Thursday.

Do not get your hopes up that the Tory government of Canada will come easily to the table in order to address climate change. Do not forget that the Harper agenda is to sell dirty Alberta oil and put the economy ahead of the health of the earth or the health and safety of its inhabitants. It is not to address the effects of climate change, which they, with their heads in a place where the sun does not shine, do not believe is occurring.

They have done everything in their power to coddle up to Bush and his desire to bring about the end sooner, rather than  later, which, if one believes in the judgement, may not be a bad idea for those of us desiring justice to be served upon Bush and his entourage of Satanic actors. Now that Bush is gone, as is the Kyoto Agreement, which the Conservative government of Harper refused to implement, the plan may well be to convince Obama that Alberta oil is a 'secure' flow for the energy sucking US nation.

Do not be fooled by Prentice's supposed statement that now that the US is willing to "tackle warming" Canada is on board. Canada may never be on board until this government is gone also. They are not willing to talk unless it supports their agenda and they will have to do a fairly long dance with lots of whispering sweet nothings into the ear of Obama if Obama actually introduces significant legislation to address the seriousness of the situation. Do not forget that emissions rose during the the time Harper has been in power. Do not forget that the Alberta tar sands is the primary source of pollution in Canada, if not the world. The Liberals signed onto Kyoto Protocol but the Tories refused to implement it.

If the Green Initiative takes off in the US, Canada will have find a way to be on board because of the importance of selling fossil fuels to the US.

 ""Canadian and American governments need to work to ensure that respective policy and regulatory frameworks are coherent and mutually supportive, and that the road to reduced emissions travels straight through the heart of our two nations, towards one common target.""  READ- if we can agree that trade will not suffer, or that we will suffer equally, we are hopping on that boat to battle global warming. This way we can tell our mindless Canadian voters that we had no choice but to support Obama's direction. PROOF- "He pointed to the new US president's willingness to tackle warming and his support of multilateralism, in contrast to the previous US administration." (This statement is laughable in itself because if you add a few Bush foibles Harper and Bush would be spewing the same meal.)

It all boils down to trade and power and as long as the Tories can feed both they will travel the road with less political congestion. It will not be because it is the right thing to do.