Modeling Journey

In an email to Liberals, Ignatieff summarizes the thrust of the new clean energy commitment of the party as follows:

"It starts with the most significant national investment in clean energy jobs this country has ever seen, including:

 Effective incentives that encourage new renewable power projects

 Landmark investments in clean energy infrastructure, especially smart grids

 Expanded incentives for wave, tidal, geothermal, biomass, and other renewable technologies

 Canadian proposals for a continental cap-and-trade system, with hard caps, so we’re driving the agenda not just reacting to Washington

 Aggressive investment in emerging technologies that clean our fossil fuels, such as carbon capture and sequestration

 Mandatory clean energy standards across the federal government (so that government vehicles will be cleaner, government buildings will be energy-efficient, and telecommuting is introduced into our public service to keep cars off the road)

 Above all, a relentless commitment to power Canada on clean energy."

This is a welcome policy by our future government, and drags Canada into the forefront of the fight against global heating, instead of surreptiously trying to sabotage world wide efforts as the Tory government appears to have been doing.

It is important to note that this policy commitment achieves two important objectives: it positions our country to take a leading role in the fight to save our planet, and it will help create new jobs for Canadians to replace the hollowing out of our industrial base which has taken place over the past quarter of a century. Many of these new jobs will be in Canada, and a big whack of the products and services we will develop in this new clean energy industry will bolster our exports, creating more wealth for our country.

If we tackle this new clean energy commitment in the right way, it will help Canada's moral authority in the world, a coinage seriously debased by the Luddism of the current Tory government under Harper's leadership. The old Tory party had a much wider view of Canada's role in the leading the world on to better things; under Harper's watch this has been changed to one of obstruction, denial of facts, and sabotage.

Harper and his Luddites squandered an opportunity to enter this new clean energy industry by targeting an adequate portion of the stimulus package to this industry. Now it is up to the next Liberal government to clean up this Tory mess.

Ignatieff's full speech can be found here.

Another hat tip to the Liberal Party!