Kyoto, quality of candidates’ French issues at Grit leadership forum in N.B.

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This article was published 17/06/2006 (7399 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MONCTON (CP) – Frontrunner Michael Ignatieff was the primary target Saturday as the 11 Liberal leadership hopefuls mixed it up over Afghanistan, the Kyoto environmental agreement and Canada’s place in the world.

The rookie Toronto MP and acclaimed academic took plenty of heat for supporting a two-year extension of the military mission in Afghanistan and for advocating a more robust combat role for Canadian troops as peacemakers, not simply peacekeepers.

But Ignatieff found some qualified support among his rivals for the idea of a carbon tax to help meet the Kyoto targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The focus on Ignatieff at the second official all-candidates debate underscored his emergence as the frontrunner in the race to replace Paul Martin, who led the Liberals to defeat in last winter’s election.

Ignatieff floated the idea of a carbon tax during the first debate in Winnipeg a week ago. He didn’t advance it Saturday but his rivals took the opportunity to weigh in on the subject.

“It is certainly not an option for me,” said Toronto MP Maurizio Bevilacqua.

Scott Brison, the sole Atlantic candidate, Toronto MP Joe Volpe, former Ontario education minister Gerard Kennedy and Hedy Fry, the lone western candidate, similarly ruled out a carbon tax. They argued that tax incentives – such as a tax on gas-guzzling SUVs or a GST cut on hybrid vehicles – would be more effective.

As Fry put it: “Carrots work better than sticks.”

Stephane Dion, a former environment minister and the only Quebec candidate, argued that the former Liberal government had a “very convincing plan” to reduce emissions, which Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government has abandoned.

However, Toronto MP and hockey legend Ken Dryden said a carbon tax should be considered if other efforts fail to meet Canada’s Kyoto targets. And Carolyn Bennett, another Toronto MP, said the federal government should examine and possibly emulate the approach taken in Quebec, which has unveiled plans for a carbon tax on oil and gas companies.

Bob Rae, the former NDP premier of Ontario, took a more nuanced position.

“You have to be very clear what you mean by a carbon tax,” he said.

Rae said it’s “sensible” to link taxation to pollution and to encourage Canadians to change their energy consumption patterns. But he added: “If you mean you’re going to be hitting one particular industry, one particular product, one particular province, it’s not a good idea.”

Toronto lawyer Martha Hall Findlay agreed with Rae. She also disagreed with a tax on SUVs, noting that farmers and others rely on large vehicles to earn their livings and shouldn’t be unfairly penalized.

For his part, Ignatieff attempted to clarify his position. He said he’s proposing to tax pollution, not revenues, and provide incentives to pollute less.

On Afghanistan, Volpe used his opening remarks to take a shot at Ignatieff, who along with Brison supported a government motion last month to extend the Canadian military mission there to 2009. All other leadership hopefuls opposed the motion.

Holding up a newspaper with a front-page story on Ignatieff’s pitch for a more aggressive role for Canada’s military in Afghanistan and other global trouble spots, Volpe said, “I read it and I agreed with everything in it because my name is Stephen Harper.”

Ignatieff did not respond in kind. Indeed, he went out of his way to praise Volpe for initiating reforms to Employment Insurance.

However, Ignatieff didn’t back down on the need for Canadian troops to help “provide human security for populations in danger.”

“That may mean you have to deploy your military in a place like Darfur, where it’s tough, in places like Afghanistan, where it’s tough,” he said.

“The single greatest problem with the United Nations is talking about protecting but not doing it. We have to be a country that actually lives by what we say and do.”

At one point, Rae spoke movingly of watching young girls in war-torn Sri Lanka ride their bikes to school. That prompted a sharp retort from Brison.

“I would urge you to consider those young women in Afghanistan who did not have the right to go to school under the Taliban,” Brison said.

The quality of the contenders’ French was also an issue at forum, the first to be held in a primarily francophone setting. Eva Turcotte – one of the roughly 400 Liberals attending the debate in the heart of Acadian New Brunswick – interrupted the event to complain bitterly about how little French candidates were speaking.

“We are not respected, the French,” she railed later to reporters.

Judging by Saturday’s performance, Turcotte said she found only Dion and Rae to be fluently bilingual.

Dion found that assessment a bit harsh, saying Ignatieff also has “good French.” He declined to comment on other candidates’ fluency but said the issue is important.

“The criterion is not to be perfectly bilingual,” Dion said in an interview.

“The criterion is are you able to win a TV debate in both official languages. If you’re not, you should not become the Liberal leader because you cannot win an election without that.”

However, New Brunswick MP Dominic LeBlanc, an Acadian who will chair the leadership convention in December, said it’s “insulting” and “very, very unfair” to complain about anglophone candidates who are obviously making an effort to speak French.

But Kennedy, whose French is laboured, said it’s “fair” for Liberals to judge the candidates’ fluency. He noted that the victor will eventually have to debate not just Harper but Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe.

“It’s up to candidates to improve,” he added.

Hall Findlay attempted unsuccessfully to expand the debate by raising the issue of private delivery of public health care.

“The word private is not bad,” she maintained, urging her rivals to move beyond “platitudes.”

Dion also appeared fed up with platitudes. He chastised his rivals for appearing to forget that the Liberals have a proud and enviable record in government. And, during a brief one-on-one debate with Kennedy over Atlantic regional development, Dion similarly lost patience with Kennedy’s repeated assertion that the status quo isn’t good enough.

“You did not express one original idea (so far),” Dion said.

Additional debates will be held this fall in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia in the run-up to the Montreal leadership convention.