Lois Brown drives a Diesel

I really hate when politicians make inane statements in response to serious questions, case in point Conservative candidate Lois Brown.

Last Friday I had the opportunity to attend a debate at Cardinal Carter Catholic School in Aurora. A student asked all five candidates a question about sustainability and the stupidest answer was most assuredly from Lois Brown who stated, “Every time I write the word conservative I underline Conserve”

What kind of stupid fucking answer is this? Does anybody actually think she does this and even if she does is it relevant to her political beliefs on the environment, sustainability, peak oil etc?

Rather than talk about NAFTA and our obligation to sell oil to the U.S. rather than horde it for Canadians, rather than defend her parties position to cancel rebates for fuel efficient cars, rather than talk about a nation energy strategy, rather than talk about subsidies for big oil while doing nothing substantive for alternatives, she offered up.

“I have a VW Diesel that gets 50 MPG”

At this point I did not know if she was simply running scared on Tory policy or disrespecting the intelligence of these students. Had I not been in a Catholic school surrounded by a couple hundred impressionable teens I would have started jeering or swearing just about then. (Mind you there was one stunning teacher wandering about the auditorium that I would been more than pleased to spend a detention or two with.)

Back to you Lois; owning a Diesel is not proof of ones environmentalism or belief in sustainability, in fact it might just as easily be seen as proof that:

You know the dealer and got a discount
You drive a lot and are just frugal
You like the styling
Your husband bought it and you just drive it
That only VW had the colour you liked.

It could also simply mean that Lois like most Conservative voters make impulsive choices without doing any real research. After all a VW diesel is not a terribly good car diesel or not, they are rated quite poorly in both Lemonade and Consumer’s Guide ratings, and while they use less fuel they still spew out a great deal of particulate matter and are damn expensive to repair. Not only that but when rationing comes diesel will be hit hardest because it’s needed to grow and deliver food as well as heat our homes.

Apparently Lois thinks driving a frugal Diesel is enough good Karma to offset her support of a leader who does not accept Climate Change is real, who believes Kyoto is a socialist scheme to funnel money from rich countries to poor ones, who tries to bullshit a nation that intensity targets will allow us to lower our carbon emission, and whose government overruled a judge’s objection to water permits issued to a Tar Sands project.

I think it’s time Lois Brown gave those students some real answers on her environmental beliefs and commitments and how she can justify those against Conservative policy


(You know maybe an old VW Diesel is a good analogy to the Conservative Party, a poor choice that’s expensive to maintain and generally stinks.)


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