Well, I personally agree that it would be very good if Canada had a progressive position on the environment--or at least as progressive as Mr. Obama's--but both the Liberal and Conservative governments have had a completely.... Well, not the Conservatives; the Liberal government had a completely duplicitous position on Kyoto. The Conservative government was much more open. But in our relationship to that major international issue, we were very regressive.
For Canada, it's not that we can have a win with the United States on that. We would have to change our own line and become better environmentalists before Mr. Obama would pay much attention to us. At the moment, the big problem is the huge environmental catastrophe called tar sands. It's a terrible contradiction. They want our oil, but they are in effect outsourcing their pollution to us. How we deal with that in the shorter term, when technologies are not going to solve the problem, is a mystery to me.
How do we get a win with Mr. Obama? That's not clear to me. But in terms of the suggestion that we take a general approach that is supportive of his efforts in international councils, I think that would probably establish a new record of cooperating with the United States on issues where they are taking a good line, such as the environment. But that requires us to change our spots.