U.S. snubs Canada

Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice just finished his press conference and he dismissed the hoax press releases, saying "I am here to negotiate." The Minister's press people distributed a release for a photo-op of U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Prentice to occur shortly after the press conference, outside of the offices of the U.S. delegation.

I showed up there and noticed Steve Kelly, Prentice's chief of staff, having a raised voice exchange with a member from the U.S. delegation. The problem was the U.S. delegation hadn't given the green light for a photo-op, just for closed bilateral meeting between the two.

Over the course of 10 minutes, Kelly repeatedly asked the U.S. delegation official to reconsider, to which the U.S. delegation official replied, negative. When Kelly asked for this to be taken up the chain of command, the U.S. delegation official replied "it came from pretty high up. It's not going to happen."

The U.S. official said he didn't understand why the photograph was so important, to which Kelly replied "we were carpetbagged this morning by (environmental non-governmental organizations) with a false press release, I gotta change the story."

A second U.S. official showed up and was able to get permissions for a compromise, which was no public photo-op, but an official Canadian photographer could enter the meeting to take a shot."

It makes you wonder when the U.S. Secretary of Energy is embarrassed to have a public photograph taken with the Canadian Minister of the Environment.

Comments

[wascally wabbit]

Sounds like Dimitri's Tightly Controlled Photo Op. strategy has developed a big leak...

[Mike Fancie]

I wonder with most of the world on the other side of the debate how long it will take for Prentice and Harper to come to their senses on the climate change issue.... this is flat-out embarrassing for Canada internationally.

[Dave Granton]

Perhaps if Mr. Prentice was willing to paint some roofs white, Mr. Chu would have his picture taken with him. That's the US Energy Czar's proposal to fight global warming, really, and white pavement on the roads too!

[Andrew]

So 'hacking' CRU and releasing data and emails that CRU was hiding from Freedom of Information requests is a crime; but creating false press releases, web sites etc. is okay. Thank you, MSM.

[BF]

How's this for a compromise?

Instead of a photo with U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, how about a photo with Jim Prentice and HGTV's Mike Holmes instead?

After all, what else is Mike Holmes in Copenhagen at taxpayers' expense for anyway, if not to appeal to the Tim Horton's crowd?

[twitter.com/urbanworkbench]

The story gets better by the second. Not only does Canada look like the bad guy - the "other" bad guys don't want to be tarnished by Canada's rep!

[Mike]

The world needs more Canada, now more than ever!

[Jim Ott]

The fake news releases really seemed to set the Tories off. No matter how you cut it, we are on the wrong side of history.

[Iffy]

With trillions of dollars up for negotiations, 15000 delegates from most every country in the world, and all you have to write about is a photo-op? I wonder what your agenda is? Also, how can "editor and co-founder of..., magazine focused on prompting and reinforcing sustainable development in Canada and abroad"
possibly give any sort of unbiased, two sided reporting?
What a sham.

[bernie 37]

And I thought they were over there to talk about the environment. I guess a photo-op is more important.
Our politicians used to be statesmen or try to be.
Now they sink to a lower level -- still dumbing down.

[MJH]

Canada is a small player on the international scene. We have a much exaggerated vision of our own importance. Hurts our pride but that is the way it is!

[astro]

The irony is overwhelming. It is the USA that is the recipient of the Tar Sands project. They get the petroleum products. Canada takes all the blame for developing one of the dirtiest operations on the face of the Earth. The US is complicit in this.

[Streetcar]

This isn't over yet. Obama flies in, makes a deal with 4 countries and leaves. The little munchkins are left to write up the agreement. The rest of the UN sees the agreement and is totally ticked. Harper isn't even mentioned in this. Layton and Iggie will focus alot of attention on Harper but I doubt the international community will. I bet Obama will end up in more poo that Harper. Canada will do okay if we can meet our international obligations. This is going to become a national unity issue for Canada. Ontario and Quebec vs Alberta.

I think there will be a lot of people will find out what a wild rose looks like. Sorry, I do not live in Alberta.

[California Blogger]

Was nice to see Schwarzenegger and Villaraigosa represent California at Copenhagen.

[wissenIQ]

Climate change is a global problem, and yet each one of us has the power to make a difference. Even small changes in our daily behaviour can help prevent greenhouse gas emissions without affecting our quality of life. In fact, they can help save us money!