Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

May 21: Contrast between column and story

Re: “Climate-change strategy offers Scheer a way to win,” column, “Salmon researchers seek funds for expanded expedition in 2020,” May 19.

Re: “Climate-change strategy offers Scheer a way to win,” column, “Salmon researchers seek funds for expanded expedition in 2020,” May 19.

I was struck by what I saw as a contrast between these two pieces: Gwyn Morgan’s blatantly political partisan presentation versus the description of an international research collaboration to learn more about Pacific salmon. The latter could provide much-needed information about the lifespan and viability of this fishery resource.

I do not dispute that the fossil-fuel industry is not going to go away soon, nor that more pipelines are going to be built, but I do not accept Morgan’s premise that, because Canada’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions is so small, we should do nothing about it beyond preparing for the apparently inevitable flooding and other disasters related to climate change. I would far rather see us do what we can both to reduce emissions and to promote international collaboration to extend the reductions toward effective levels.

I am also not going to defend the plan put forward by the federal Liberal Party, as I do not have the “facts” that support it. At the same time, I cannot even compare the strategies of the political parties, since the Conservative plan is “still coming.”

I wish that our elections and governance were not so entangled with gamesmanship and moved toward a more collaborative, consensual interaction, which, in my view, is what a representative democratic government, such as Canada’s, should be.

I use the quotation marks around “facts” because I do not have access to their verification, being an ordinary citizen reading the newspaper and viewing news on television.

Robert MacLachlan

Colwood