A national poll by Ipsos Reid at the Dominion Institute shows that 43% of Canadians think we should deal with the economic recession before we move any further on climate change. 57% still think, since the last poll before the economic crisis in the fall, that action on climate change is unprecedented, even if it means higher deficits for Canada.
The Globe and Mail (Canada’s national news paper) reports:
Three-quarters of Canadians say we should only adopt stimulus measures that are environmentally sustainable, while 71 per cent say it’s more important for the government to focus on jobs than climate change.
“They’re saying maybe we can have the best of both worlds,” Mr. Simpson said. “Maybe instead of creating jobs in the tar sands we can create them in the environmental sector.”
Maybe, Canada, maybe. Who would have thunk.
This seems an appropriate time to remind that Sweden has seen 44 percent economic grown in the same period that the country has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 8 percent below 1990 levels, deeper than the average Kyoto Protocol commitment of 5.2 percent.
Welcome, dear fellow Canadians, to the power shift.
Extra note of interest: Getting more specific, the Globe and Mail reports that 64 % of Canadians want the Alberta tar/oil sands to be stopped until a sustainable and clean way of development is found. In Alberta, that statistic is 47%.
Across the country, support for environmental policies tends to increase the further one gets from Alberta. The oil-rich province, which has been hurt by the recent fall in commodity prices, is about 10 per cent out of step with the rest of the country on every environmental question…
Saturday’s article notes:
The poll is the basis for the third policy discussion at globeandmail.com‘s public policy wiki, where readers can propose solutions, comment on other suggestions and vote on their preferred course of action. It is available at http://policywiki.theglobeandmail.com.
