The PM in Denmark

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is in Copenhagen, but not speaking to the Assembly this evening. According to this memo, just received from the PMO, here's what Harper is doing instead:

This afternoon Prime Minister Harper met with Environment Minister Jim Prentice, and Gary Doer, Canada's Ambassador to the United States.

Minister Prentice briefed the Prime Minister on the latest developments in the negotiations here in Copenhagen.

As you know, Ambassador Doer is part of Minister Prentice's advisory group for the Copenhagen meeting. Ambassador Doer provided his perspectives on the conference to date. 
 
The Prime Minister also met this evening with Shawn Atleo, the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. Chief Atleo is also a member of Minister Prentice's advisory group.

The Prime Minister will be leaving shortly for tonight's leaders' meeting, organized by the Danes. There, he will be engaging other leaders as part of Canada's efforts to work constructively to produce a single agreement here in Copenhagen that includes verifiable mitigation commitments from all major economies / emitters.
 
While the Prime Minister is meeting with other leaders, Minister Prentice will deliver Canada's statement to the assembly. Minister Prentice will be followed on stage  by U.S negotiator Todd Stern.

According to the official programme issued by the UN, the Chinese speaker will be Zhang Ping - the Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission.

Among G8 nations:

Japan is represented by their Minister of the Environment, Sakihito Ozawa.

Russia is represented by Igor Shuvalov, the First Deputy Prime Minister.

Italy will be represented by their Minister of Environment, Land and Sea, Stefania Prestigiacomo.

Comments

[Scott Tribe]

Well, Italy's leader has a good reason for not being there. As for the other countries mentioned, they have also been criticized at times for their stance on fighting climate change, so I'm not sure the PMO has exactly defended Harper's absence from speaking that well.

[Gabby in QC]

Since I often see the very same wording of a "news story" in different media orgs, I feel no shame in posting a comment I already posted elsewhere:

An article by the Canadian Press, and as is very often the case, unattributed to anyone:
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/091217/national/climate_where_s_harper
“Harper skips Canada’s climate conference speech to dine with leaders
COPENHAGEN, Denmark – Gordon Brown, Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – and Jim Prentice?
While dozens of other world leaders took to the podium Thursday to address delegates at the Copenhagen climate talks, Prime Minister Stephen Harper sent his environment minister in his place.
Prentice was to give a short speech Thursday night outlining Canada’s stance on climate change to representatives from nearly 200 countries.
Harper had other plans – he was joining leaders at a dinner hosted by the Queen of Denmark. … ”

The article implies that the PM is not interested in the talks going on, that he prefers attending a fancy dinner. But hold it! What’s that about “other leaders”?
Oh! We learn only at the very end of the piece that “Harper isn’t alone in skipping an address. *Seventy nine of the 136 leaders sent someone else in their place. That includes the United States and China.*"

The CBC’s Terry Milewski had the same garbage … I mean story … on Power & Politics, but in keeping with unofficial CBC policy, he omitted mentioning other leaders did not attend the climate conference speech.

And those leaders, whose countries emit close to 50% if not more of GHGs to our mere 2%, did not attend the latest speeches to listen to the insights of illustrious and enlightened people like Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ah-mad-in-ejad either.

[MyThought]

In other words, Harper is only there for a photo-op with Obama to add to his collection of his neverending taxpayer funded photos.

[Domo Sudoku]

You're being sarcastic :)