10%ers done right

With the overwhelming amount of negative and partisan 10%er mailouts, it’s easy to forget that they can actually be used constructively to help rebuild trust in politicians.

Exhibit A is NDP MP Megan Leslie who used her 10%ers to notify constituents about an art gallery display that she put on in her constituency office.

Exhibit B (below) is my own MP Joyce Murray, who used a flier to remind constituents about the importance of the Paralympic Games and to recognize Abraham Rogatnick, who recently passed away but is remembered as “father of Vancouver’s contemporary arts scene, architect, professor, mentor, intellectual, philanthropist, actor, author, and friend.”

Now, Ms. Murray did include a comment form which I filled out with concerns about either Bill C-311 or the HST (I don’t remember), but she did reply to me at last with her stance on the NDPs Climate Change Accountability Act:

Dear Mr. Bushfield:

Thank you for your correspondence concerning Bill C-311, an act to ensure Canada assumes its responsibilities in preventing dangerous climate change.

I have chosen to support Bill C-311 as it serves as a symbol for change. It signals that Canada is prepared to take strong action on the critical issue of climate change.

Unfortunately, I was not able to be in Ottawa during the vote to extend debate on this legislation. As the representative for Amateur Sport and the Olympics, I had a responsibility to be present in Athens, Greece, to receive the torch for the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.

The Liberal Party of Canada has always been committed to combating climate change and creating a sustainable, low-carbon economy. It was a Liberal government that negotiated and signed the Kyoto Protocol, and ratified it in 2005, despite Conservative opposition. Under the previous Liberal governments significant funds were dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, partnerships were negotiated with the provinces, industry and the public to seek their cooperation, and emissions began to decline by 2005.

That being said, those Liberal members that voted to extend the Bill C-311 hearings at the Environment Committee are worried that it is an incomplete bill.  They also believe that realistic medium and long-term emissions targets will be set internationally at a United Nations conference culminating in Copenhagen this December.

The climate change crisis is the most urgent ecological and human concern of our generation and the subject of my own Masters Degree thesis almost eighteen years ago.

I have attached to this e-mail a recent speech given by Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff which lays out the Liberal platform regarding the environment and climate change.

Best regards,

Joyce Murray
Member of Parliament
Vancouver Quadra

That speech is available here. He sets 1990 as a base year, but in a quick skim I don’t know how much he wants to cut emissions below that level (remember that many are calling for as much as 45% reductions below 1990 level, Canada’s aiming for 3% currently with no effort planned). I should also point out that those Liberals who worried about the “incompleteness” of the bill had no trouble passing the exact same version last year. Nevertheless, the bill is through committee and set to be passed third reading in the New Year (and then hopefully through the Senate this time before any elections).