Conservative People Love the Environment Too!

Maybe they just have a funny way of showing it?

Writing in the National Post, the Fraser Institute’s Mark Milke tries to dispel the myth that conservatives are by definition anti-environment. After describing how he once saved a herd of wild sheep in Alberta (he also planted trees for three, count ‘em, three summers!) he assures us that because an unspoiled environment is key to economic growth “some of the most hard-core, blue fiscal conservatives in the country, are also the most protective of the natural environment.” Which is to say, good for them. Now what?

The Globe and Mail’s Jeffrey Simpson is not surprised that new Environment Minister Peter Kent defended the oil sands before being briefed on them by his ministry. “Kent was briefed, of course,” sneers Simpson, “by the Prime Minister’s Office, where the lines had been scripted for the oil sands’ new song-and-dance man.” Simpson finds Kent’s decision to stick to the Conservative party line all the more distressing in light of an unbiased Royal Society report that cleared the oil sands from its critics harshest charges, but also predicted that if left unchecked, emissions from the industry will cause Canada to miss Stephen Harper’s own emission reduction targets. “Canadians might have thought that such a prospect would at least bother the federal Environment Minister. Apparently not.”

In The Mark, Donald Gutstein traces in meticulous detail the troubling process by which “ethical oil” went from the theme of a book by right-wing pundit Ezra Levant to an official Conservative talking point, with a lot of help along the way from Sun Media and the National Post, both of which have ties to Levant, the Conservatives, or both. “[E]stablishing ethical oil as a component of government rhetoric illustrates the growing success of a Canadian right-wing echo chamber that is aping the tactics of the Republican noise machine,” writes Gutstein. It’s a compelling read but curiously, after spending 1500 words tracing the term, he declares “It’s unclear how ethical oil moved from book idea to government policy,” as if there was some larger conspiracy afoot. Which frankly, the Mark Newsroom just can’t see.