Liberal convention seeing green
Federal party's leader hopefuls promise environmental focus
Several Liberal leadership candidates have made finals bids for the party's top job by promising a strong environmental focus - an issue that unites Canadians.
At the party's convention in Montreal, there were eight candidates going to to fight it out for the party leadership and a chance to take on Stephen Harper's conservatives in the next election. Many candidates have promised an environmental focus, an issue that contrasts them with the Conservatives and rings true to most Canadians.
Improving the environment surfaced as a major issue on the Canadian political landscape in 2004, when 55 per cent of all Canadians named "improving the environment" as a very important issue. It came second only to health care as the most important issue to Canadians, offering a galvanizing issue in a fractured political landscape.
Since then, parties like the NDP and new-comers Green Party have been wooing leftist voters with platforms strongly favouring environmentally-friendly policy. Now leadership hopefuls for the Liberals want a piece of that voter pie.
Front-runner coming into the final weekend of the race is former Harvard and University of Toronto professor Michael Ignatieff. He used his convention speech to paint Canada as a leader in environmental sustainability.
Scott Brison, who ran for the Progressive Conservative leadership and lost before jumping ship to the Liberals, was the candidate to focus on the environment the most in his final speech. Brison has proclaimed himself a defender of the environment, and as an unlikely winner at the convention, probably used his speech to influence party policy. His speech may signal his support for Stéphane Dion.
Dion has the strongest environmental background, being named environmental minister for the Liberals after the 2004 election. He was on the verge of releasing a plan for Canada to meet their Kyoto Accord commitments before the Liberals were ousted by the Conservatives in an election.
Since gaining that portfolio, Dion has been crafting policies towards a "green economy." One of his favourite phrases: "Canada can help cut megatonnes of greenhouse gases, and make megatonnes of money doing it."
It is a combination of sustainable environment, yet conservative fiscal policies that have made the Greens a political force. Now Dion has used the same weapon to win support - gaining the support of Gerard Kennedy, who was fourth place just behind Dion after the second ballot of voting.
