PM has left a void in policies to cut greenhouse gases, Liberal leadership contender saysVANCOUVER -- Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper has left a political void by abandoning efforts to reach Kyoto targets on reducing greenhouse gases, and Canadians want Liberals to offer a clear plan for coming "as close as we possibly can" to meeting them, Liberal leadership front-runner Michael Ignatieff said yesterday.
Even though, like Mr. Harper, Mr. Ignatieff concedes that Canada will now be unable to meet the Kyoto target of reducing emissions by 6 per cent from 1990 levels, he said that the Liberals must put forward a plan to redouble efforts to come close.
"I'm telling you right now, we cannot go into the next election without elements of this as a crucial part of the progressive vision that this party has for the future of the country," Mr. Ignatieff said at a press conference in Vancouver, on the eve of a retreat of Liberal MPs that has become a gathering for the 10 contenders for the party's leadership.
"Stephen Harper has left a hole the size of a house where a decent, compassionate and imaginative environmental and climate-change policy ought to be. There isn't anything in the window. And it seems to me the people of Canada are going to look to our party for leadership on this issue and we must not fail them."
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