An Open Letter to Peter Kent, Minister of the Environment

May 8, 2012


ATTN: The Honourable Peter Kent
Minister of the Environment
Member of Parliament for Thornhill (Ontario)
Les Terrasses de la Chaudière
10 Wellington Street, 28th Floor
Gatineau, Quebec
K1A 0H3


Dear Minister Kent,


I am writing to you in response to the comments of Scott Vaughan, the federal commissioner of the environment and sustainable development, made earlier today. I identify officially as non-partisan, though firmly consider myself a “small-c” conservative. I would like to voice my concern about the apparent direction of the party’s environmental policy, and the implications of Mr. Vaughan’s comments on the Canadians who continue to support you.

Canadian conservatives are fundamentally pragmatic people, who resist change when it is unnecessary. On environmental issues such as the Kyoto accord, conservative Canadians were quick to support the position of the CPC. Signing on to Kyoto would indeed put us at a competitive disadvantage against our trading partners, not to mention the excessive demands of the accord on a nation with a growing population. My peers and I were quick to support closer integration in environmental policy with our trading partners, particularly the United States, and accepted the CPC criticisms of previous governments as legitimate. The CPC criticisms made pragmatic sense.

However, the recent policy direction seems to be quite different from the refreshing pragmatism of previous years. Vaughan’s observation, that Canada is no longer on track to meet even the requirements of the Copenhagen agreement, is alarming. While I admire the CPC’s willingness to stand up against unrealistic commitments made by previous governments, I find the party’s unwillingness to commit to its own environmental commitments disturbing. This is as much an ethical issue as it is a pragmatic one; a party that not only breaks its promises but also violates its own apparent policy direction is a dishonest party.

The environment is important to the long-run sustainability of our economy and to our continued well-being. Please take environmental issues seriously. A failure to do so will result in the loss of support from pragmatic conservatives, such as me, who supported your party because it seemed either responsible or consistent.


Sincerely,



Colin Conrad