So Denis Coderre is the latest casualty in the internecine wars between the Chretien and Martin camps. Apparently the Martinites have come out ahead again despite the party faithful’s best efforts to circumvent both camps by electing Stephane Dion at the last real leadership convention. Alas, Stephane just couldn’t get it together and is rumoured to be contemplating a quiet withdrawal from the ongoing Liberal knife fight – now that his campaign debts are likely paid off.

What oh what are generations of loyal grass roots Liberals to do?

Iggy is floundering like a professor out of college. The Quebec wing is in theatric disarray and there isn’t a safe Liberal seat west of Barrie.
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The petroleum sector in Canada has developed into a vibrant industry which has resulted in export driven economic wealth and a top five global energy producer. In 2007, Canada’s energy export revenue totaled $90 billion and accounted for about 20% of the value of all exports. A study undertaken at the University of Calgary suggests that our economy without the impact of oil and gas would barely be recognizable, less than half its current size.
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As of this writing it, looks like the minority Conservative government may last through the week, if their budget-related ‘ways-and-means motion’ is supported by either the NDP or the (GASP!) Separatists. This after an election looked downright inevitable after Michael Ignatieff suggested his Liberals would no longer support the Conservatives and would instead send the country back to the polls at the first chance they got.

The mood amongst Canadians generally seems to be anti-election, with polls suggesting that 71% of Canadians don’t want or see a need for an election, sentiments which I would share. This would be the fourth election in less than six years, and less than one year after the last one of October 14th. Not much has changed since then, and public opinion has only slightly swayed back and forth (although the Liberals have a new leader, and the country has since descended into, and then begun to recover from, a recession, so perhaps that’s really poor analysis on my part).
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Global trade in carbon is a growing business with quadrupling in international carbon sales in 2006 at over $25B USD according to the World Bank. The New York Times presented carbon trading as one of the fastest growing trades, with companies scrambling to get a slice of a market now worth about $30 billion and could grow to $1 trillion within a decade. Carbon trading is the new big thing according to “In London’s Financial World”. Carbon will be the world’s biggest commodity market, and it could become the world’s biggest market over all, it added.

Alberta Climate Change and Emissions Management Act 2007, and British Columbia Greenhouse Gas Reduction Targets Act or Cap and Trade Act, 2008, pave the way for industrial plants in these provinces, to take action to mitigate their carbon intensity, including buying of carbon credits to offset and meet their greenhouse gas emissions intensity target, thereby pioneering carbon trading in these provinces and Canada at large.
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