I like former Vice President Al Gore.  When he was Vice President everybody made fun of him because he was made out as so stiff.  He got more votes than George W. Bush in 2000, but at the end of the day it didn’t matter.  A Supreme Court decision stopped a Florida recount and Al Gore walked away without a challenge.  He was a man’s man for doing that.  Deep down he must have thought he was robbed.

Some think he is getting ready to run for President in 2008.  They say that partly because of his very successful remake as an environmentalist.  His documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth” won an Oscar and has transformed Gore from some stiff backwater academic from Tennessee to a chic new age green politician draped with celebrity.

In 2007 he is seemingly everywhere pushing the green agenda.  It is a bit like finding religion late in life, a great thing, but when the pressure was on it wasn’t convenient.  Gore once said he invented the Internet.  At the time he was serious, but since then he’s turned it into a joke.  Now, he’s the American reincarnate of David Suzuki.  Make him President and the world is supposed to believe it’ll be a greener place.

Of course if you are a regular reader of this column you’ll know I believe being green is whatever you want it to be.  The inconvenient truth here is being green is not convenient and talking about it is easier.  The Harper Conservatives have found that out.

However, I give them a little credit.  Last week Canadian environment minister John Baird was blindsided by former President Al Gore, who was in Toronto once again chortling about the “inconvenient truth.” Gore, said the Canadian government plan is a complete and total fraud designed to mislead the Canadian people.  He said the rest of the world looks to Canada for moral leadership and that’s why the announcement was so shocking.

It was said with indignation and didn’t do Al Gore a lot of good.  From my perspective it looked like the ugly American coming up to Canada and telling us how we should live.  In this country that is never appreciated.  In my mind Gore was clearly taking advantage of the situation, trying to help those on the Canadian left who are piling on.  I didn’t like his lecture one bit.

Canadian environment minister John Baird shot back that Gore has campaigned for many American Democrats with extremely weak environmental plans.  He said that Al Gore had been the second most powerful man in this world and didn’t do anything to reduce green house gas emissions in the United States.  In short John Baird was right and Al Gore should have kept his mouth shut.

Yes, the inconvenient truth is we have a problem Houston.  Climate change is a big issue but what do we do, get poorer to get greener?  How many people are willing to give up what they’ve worked hard for in the hope that the global climate will cool back a few degrees?  How many environmentalists have a vested interest in global warming?  Do Canadians have special responsibilities with regard to climate change while the people in the developing world in India, Bangladesh and China get a free pass?  There is so much to this.  Nobody wants it to hit them in the pocket book.

And in Canada we don’t need an American ex-Vice President telling us what to think about global warming/climate change.  Most days when I go to work I watch for a layer of pollution in the western sky.  I often see it, a brown layer of gunk, which has come straight across the St. Clair River into Canada.  So when Liberal leader Stephane Dion and NDP leader Jack Layton support Gore on Canadian soil, it’s so disappointing.

Early in this climate change debate I used to ask my readers whether some of them believe its all “hot air?”  I’d get chortles of laughter from some.  Others would write how I was crazy.  The clincher for me was the effect on the Artic.  When I see the compelling evidence that sea ice is not as thick, starving polar bears on Hudson Bay and problems with ice roads, its pretty obvious the stars are coming together on this.  However, I don’t see an apocalypse coming.

Rewind to 1987 with Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney facing off against US President Ronald Reagan.  Mulroney said something about Acid Rain.  Ronald Reagan stared at him like he was on drugs, “ACID RAIN”!  Year’s later acid rain has been cut by 40%.  The difference this time is we have an American politician sounding off and Canadians scattering to react.  Knowing what’s right has never been so elusive.