[Section 15] Of pots and kettles using Chamberlain analogies

So Elizabeth May is in the middle of a small controversy over her remarks comparing the lack of proper action regarding global warming in Canada to Neville Chamberlain's failure to appreciate the dangers of Nazi Germany. With some politicians calling for her to retract her remarks, I thought it fitting to visit similar recent remarks from other politicians.

From Hansard, Jack Layton:

Mr. Speaker, enough is enough. We have been hearing those kinds of comments from the Prime Minister for 16 years since he began promising to clean up the air for Canadians and instead we have worse pollution than ever. He makes Neville Chamberlain look like a stalwart in standing up to a crisis.

Smog is sending people to emergency wards at unprecedented levels. The prairies are drying up. We have forest fires like we have never had before. All we get are promises of plans to be brought forward some day. Will he bring forward a plan, yes or no?

From Hansard, Hon. Robert Thibault (West Nova, Lib.) (whom I just saw on CBC distancing himself a bit from May):

I listened to the Minister of Finance when he was reading his budget speech. He said that the long days of bickering between the federal and provincial governments were over. I have not heard a quote like that since I read about Neville Chamberlain talking about peace in our times right before the second world war.

And, finally, also from Hansard, Peter Mackay, MP for Central Nova, and soon to be running against Elizabeth May herself, is recently on record with this:

Mr. Speaker, what is completely sad is that the member would somehow diminish the real important work that is being done. Millions of Afghan children are now in school and work is being done to build villages with clean water, with hospitals and with schools. I do not know how the member can debase that effort and equate it with some of the rigorous activity that is going on inside that country, the activities that he described.

I do not expect members of the NDP to understand this. I fully expect that the Neville Chamberlains of the 21st century in the NDP do not want to be part of an effort that is aimed at elevating the lives of the people of Afghanistan. It is unfortunate that they would take this off track and try to debase the real activity, the important quality of life changes that are taking place because of our forces being in Afghanistan. That is what is so misleading about the position of the NDP.

Climate change caused by Global Warming will likely be a catastrophe causing immense death and suffering unless we act with far more aggression now. Comparing our inaction and dithering to Neville Chamberlain's lack of vision is appropriate given the risks we are taking. Certainly, Elizabeth's use of the analogy is not out of the ordinary.

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Posted By Mark Francis to Section 15 at 5/02/2007 02:50:00 PM