Climate Change: Waking Up and Catching Up!

This fellow looks like he is watching the declining quality of political discourse over climate change too and, given the pose and look on his face, he seems to be wondering what his future is going to be too.

We need a credible discussion and a serious conversation on this stuff. Too much of what is happening is cheap political theatre - from everyone except Elizabeth May. Come on gentlemen! If you feel you must "play the game" at least elevate the quality of your play.

We just did our latest column for LaPresse on the issues of climate change and the rapid rise of consciousness in Alberta. I will post it once it is publised in the newspaper.

Lets face it we need the planet more than it needs us.

Albertans Resoundingly Approve Smoking Bans

The Canadian Cancer Society and Smoke-Free Alberta today released the poll results I mentioned in this Blog the other day. As I speculated there is little difference in the support legislation restricting tobacco use in workplaces, public establishments and sales in pharmacies and the use of so-called “power wall” displays of tobacco products in retail establishments.

The support levels are the highest since such surveys have been conducted in Alberta. The new political reality is that the support between the rural and urban Albertans is statistically the same. An impressive 80% of Albertans want a complete ban in the workplace and public establishments and 78% say the products should not be sold in pharmacies, and I understand there is no disagreement by Pharmacists on this. The scientific poll is even stronger than the 74% support in my little blog site survey on the issue.

Premier Stelmach during the PC leadership campaign completed a survey and sent a cover letter to Smoke-Free Alberta saying “Let me be perfectly clear in my disapproval of smoking. It is a tremendous cost to society in terms of health care.” Ed is also a democrat as he went further to say that he “…recognizes the value of all points of view, I will encourage my caucus to debate further measures to reduce smoking and to support and champion their collective decision.”

This kind of initiative has failed before due to Ralph Klein’s opposition. Now we have a leader on side but that still means it will be a caucus decision and my bet will be a free vote this coming session. Hancock and Stelmach will make a great tag team on this initiative and in the process will dispel any myth that there is a rural-urban split in the Stelmach caucus. Champions are handy but they don't guarantee a win in a free vote.

Replying to a pollster is one thing – making your elected representative know your wishes on this issue and to make those wishes the law of the land will take more effort. If citizens sit back and do not press this issue, I can’t see it passing successfully through the political process, regardless of leadership changes. Citizens have to make it happen!

Klein Criticizes Harper - Is There Trouble in Tory Land?

Small story in the Globe and Mail this morning where former Alberta Premier Ralph Klein has called on Prime Minister Harper to reverse his reversal and restore the income trusts.

Klein reportedly said "The problem with Stephen has with income trusts is that he didn't keep his word so that doesn't sit well with the Canadian public." He call on Harper to reverse himself again for "redemption." OUCH!

Klein still has a considerable amount of sway with the libertarians of the fiscal conservative variety. Is this an indication of even more erosion of the old Reform/Allinace base from Harper?

Good to see Ralph is not putting himself out to pasture nor going quietly into that political night. Lougheed and Manning have weighed in on the public policy agenda very effectively. I wonder how Ralph will fair in the elder statesman role compared to those gentlemen.

OMIGOD! Even the French Have Banned Smoking!

Here is a piece today from the BBC News Service!

Bidding goodbye to the Gauloises
By Caroline Wyatt BBC News, Paris

What could be more French than sitting in a cafe enjoying a coffee and a cigarette, watching the world go by?
Not any more.
From Thursday, the plumes of smoke that once wreathed the great thoughts of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, as they puffed away at the café Les Deux Magots on the Left Bank, have been banished by the chill winds of change.
France has imposed a ban on smoking in public places, so Les Deux Magots is now strictly "non-fumeur": a smoke-free zone.
That famous French chain-smoker Serge Gainsbourg once sang an anthem to the habit, entitled "God smokes Havana cigars."
Cafe philosophy
Well, if He does, He will no longer be smoking them in this cafe nor in many others - and absolutely not in offices or government buildings.
Perhaps surprisingly, the move is backed by a majority of the French, and even by a majority of smokers.
The French writer Olivier Todd was a friend of the late, great smoker, Jean-Paul Sartre, and remembers breathing in his philosophy along with the fumes of Sartre's ever-present Gauloises in Les Deux Magots and Cafe Flore on the Left Bank.
Yet, though he feels a pang of nostalgia for the old days, Olivier Todd believes it is time for France to change.
"Those who smoke enjoy cigarettes after a meal or after making love can still do so. It's just that you won't necessarily be able to do so in a restaurant or cafe any more," he tells me, as he looks wistfully at his packet of cigarettes.
"So the ban in public places will not change things - we can still smoke in private. There will not be a revolution, a May '68 over cigarettes, that's for sure. And it will help people to give up."
French paradox
Monsieur Todd pats the nicotine chewing gum he now keeps in his top pocket as a substitute while in smoke-free areas.

For this is a typical French paradox - smoking in public places such as airports, railway stations, hospitals, offices and schools is now forbidden.
But restaurants, cafes, casinos and bars have until December to allow their customers to get used to the idea of their morning coffee without their "clop" or fag.
Yet the owner of Les Deux Magots, Catherine Mathivat, the great-grand-daughter of its original "patron", says she was keen to ban smoking as soon as possible, and is glad to be getting rid of the smoke.
"It will be good for the employees," she says, gesturing at the smartly-attired waiters.
"They are always in a smoky environment, and they get bronchitis and other diseases because of it.
"A lot of writers used to come Les Deux Magots and they used to drink a coffee or a glass of wine while they smoked, but I think that things have changed. The writers of today are not so addicted to cigarettes."
French identity
Her customers agree. Some 70% of the French support the ban, and, in these health-conscious times, customers at Les Deux Magots are appropriately philosophical about the change.
"People have started accepting the fact that smoking is not the thing to do. They have lost so many of their friends to lung cancer that they know that it means something," says Yves.
"I think it's a good thing - too many young people smoke. The ban is good for everyone," insists Rene, himself a smoker.
But in a cafe across the river, the Sarah Bernhardt on Place du Chatelet, there is one last Frenchman willing to defy the ban.
Teacher Gregory Bianchi looks around, rolls a cigarette and defiantly lights up.
"I believe in the right to fresh air, but I believe that it's also a right to smoke in a public place," he says.
"This is supposed to be a place of pleasure where you can relax, and smoking is part of that. They should have smoking restaurants and bars, and non-smoking restaurants and bars. That would be fair."
From today, thousands of French police will have the right to stop and fine smokers they catch flouting the ban, with a penalty of 68 euros or just under £50.
Nearly 16 years after his death, Serge Gainsbourg may be turning in his grave, as a little spark of French identity is finally extinguished for the greater good of the Republique's health, as France finally ends its long love affair with the cigarette.
Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/6319133.stmPublished: 2007/02/01 00:46:33 GMT© BBC MMVII

MIGHT ALBERTA BE NEXT?

A New Poll on a Smoking Ban Coming Soon.

The Canadian Cancer Society, Alberta Branch has done a new opinion poll on the issue of banning smoking in public places. I hear it is to be released very soon. Perhaps even as early as tomorrow! I wonder how the support stacks up and the fabled rural – urban split on the issue of banning smoking in public places?

Based on other social values research I have seen for Albertans, the rural-urban divide is very mythological, at least on a values basis. We Albertans are pretty much the same kind of people in terms of what we believe in and what we consider to be important. We may disagree on the ways and means to solve a particular problem. But we Albertans are still very closely aligned as to what the problems are and in what we consider their priority of importance.

This concurrence is pretty independent of what we do for a living or to where we live. Sure there are some occasional differences, between Edmonton and Calgary, or the north and the south opinions. There is really very little difference in our values as Albertans, based on where we live. It seems to make no real significant difference if we are either rural or urban

In the recent PC leadership campaign, “Candidate Stelmach” supported a ban on smoking in public places. But he did say it would be a final decision of Caucus. He is keeping true to that position. It is expected this issue will be dealt with (yet again) in Caucus and likely in this spring session starting February 27.

So if the majority of Albertan wants this smoking ban to happen, at least that is what past polls have said we want. And I am willing to bet the new Cancer Society poll will concur. We better let our elected representatives know how much we value our health and how important this issue is as a policy priority to be dealt with - and as soon as possible.

In any event, this is an idea whose time has come, it will not happen without a concerted political effort by Albertans. This idea has been defeated many times in prior Caucus decisions. But we have a new leader and taht always means a change. Citizens who desire a different result this time have too be mobilized, both personally and within their spheres of influence to make that change happen.

We have to get the message across to the PC Caucus by letting then know that this is an idea whose time has come. As a health wellness and disease prevention issue it is step in the right direction. From that perspective, this is not a very hard political decision for anyone to make. Let your wishes be known to MLAs all over the province. If they tell you it is a hard choice to mae, remind them that is why they are elected - to make hard choices on our behalf.

The new legislative session starts February 27th. It is timely to start writing your MLA. Call their offices. Send an email, or a snail mail is even better, in support of a smoking ban in public places in Alberta. Remember the world is run by those who show up!