Over the summer, ARPA Canada will be re-posting an old blog or article each Thursday. We hope that you enjoy these blasts from the past as we re-live some of the major content, issues, and campaigns of ARPA’s past 15 years. 

The following article, written by Mark Penninga, was originally published in the Reformed Perspective Magazine and reposted on ARPA’s website in 2014. Given that three leaders and one interim leader of the Conservative Party have come and gone since then, with a new leader set to be announced in just a few weeks, the thought that we’d share this article noting the successes and failures of the last time there was Conservative government in Ottawa. What might we expect from a future Conservative government?

In a June 2011 article for Reformed Perspective I detailed 10 realistic goals that could be accomplished for our nation under this Conservative government if our leaders have the courage to lead and if citizens give them the encouragement and accountability to do so. Now that we are about halfway through this government’s mandate, how are we faring on these issues?

1. Give Aboriginals the responsibility and hope that belongs to all Canadians
Grade: B+

Not long after ARPA published a policy report on this issue in 2012, we were very encouraged to see the federal government announce a number of bills and policies to increase accountability, equality, and opportunity for Canada’s Aboriginal peoples. In June 2013, the First Nations Financial Transparency Act became law. Aboriginal MP Rob Clarke has also introduced a private member’s bill C-428 entitled the Indian Act Amendment and Replacement Act. And the government has also taken steps towards allowing private property ownership on reserves and increasing parental responsibility in education.

As encouraging as these changes are, they are small steps in light of the enormity of the problem. And given that the issue crosses into provincial responsibility, much more can also be done in having the provinces and federal government work towards a common vision.

2. Reform the Canadian Human Rights Commission
Grade: C-

In light of all the opposition from all sides of the political spectrum to problematic sections of the Canadian Human Rights Act, it is striking that it took a private member’s bill (Brian Storseth’s C-304) to finally abolish Section 13 in the summer of 2013.

This was a huge victory, but the current government can’t take much credit for it, apart from not actively opposing it. Much more can be done to reform or even abolish the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

(more…)

Please see the attached pdf at the bottom of this article for the formatted version. Below is the text-only:

Respectfully Submitted Policy Report for Parliamentarians

In announcing his newly-elected cabinet, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau broke with the past by lengthening the title of the ‘Minister of the Environment’ to now include ‘and Climate Change’. This was meant to signal to Canadians that the new government is making climate change policy a priority, worthy of a key cabinet post. One of Minister Catherine McKenna’s first tweets as Minister was, “Canada agrees the science is indisputable, and we recognize the need for urgent/greater action that is grounded in robust science.” The Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) Canada shares the Minister’s passion for grounding climate policy in “robust science” and encourages the Parliament of Canada to re-examine the facts and ideologies directing climate change policy.

The idea of climate change – specifically catastrophic anthropogenic (man-caused) global warming – was brought to public attention when high-profile environmentalists and politicians publicized statistics showing a rapid increase of the earth’s temperature since the industrial revolution. The signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1992 and Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth documentary popularized the cause. Based on computer modelling of historic weather patterns, cataclysmic predictions were made: total polar ice-cap melts, dramatic increases in sea levels, flooding in some areas and severe droughts in other areas, the extinction of animal and plant species, and the increase of natural disasters, plagues and famines which will alter the lives of billions of people across the globe. Such predictions are understandably alarming.

(more…)

ARPA Canada’s Executive Director and Legal Counsel are among the signatories of a quality declaration from the Cornwall Alliance titled “Protect the Poor: Ten Reasons to Oppose Harmful Climate Change Policies.” We joined over 20 climate scientists, along with many economists, policy experts, and ministry leaders and we encourage our readers to consider signing onto this declaration as well (please note that this declaration is available for all citizens to sign, not just those with fancy titles and educational degrees). Among other things, the declaration calls on political leaders “to abandon fruitless and harmful policies to control global temperature and instead adopt policies that simultaneously reflect responsible environmental stewardship, make energy and all its benefits more affordable, and so free the poor to rise out of poverty.”

The declaration is based on a quality 50+ page study from two leading climate scholars, including Canadian Dr. G Kornelis van Kooten. We highly recommend you share this study with all those who think that climate change policies are sensible, just, and in keeping with a Christian ethic of love and stewardship. 

You can learn more by reading this feature article from World Magazine. Also, be sure to catch our most recent episode of Lighthouse News where we interviewed Canadian expert Dr. Ross McKitrick about the economics of climate change policies.

Some of our readers may wonder why ARPA is covering this issue, and on the side of the “climate change skeptics”. To be clear, ARPA is not denying “climate change.” The climate has been changing since creation and will continue to do so. We are, however, challenging the poor policies that have been developed in Canada’s municipal and provincial governments in response to “climate change” and also seek to expose their futility and waste. This includes examining the hypothesis that underlie these policies, as Dr. McKitrick does well in his interview. This declaration and study reveals the impact these policies are having on the world’s poor, who will suffer a disproportionate amount because of them.

The following article, “Report Card: Assessing Canada’s Conservative Government on 10 Key Issues” was originally published in the Reformed Perspective magazine. It has been updated and included here as a reference item for our readers. You can download a PDF of the updated version, linked at the bottom of the text if you wish to print a copy.

By Mark Penninga (Updated July, 2014)

In a June 2011 article for Reformed Perspective I detailed 10 realistic goals that could be accomplished for our nation under this Conservative government if our leaders have the courage to lead and if citizens give them the encouragement and accountability to do so. Now that we are about halfway through this government’s mandate, how are we faring on these issues?

1. Give Aboriginals the responsibility and hope that belongs to all Canadians
Grade: B+

Not long after ARPA published a policy report on this issue in 2012, we were very encouraged to see the federal government announce a number of bills and policies to increase accountability, equality, and opportunity for Canada’s Aboriginal peoples. In June 2013, the First Nations Financial Transparency Act became law. Aboriginal MP Rob Clarke has also introduced a private member’s bill C-428 entitled the Indian Act Amendment and Replacement Act. And the government has also taken steps towards allowing private property ownership on reserves and increasing parental responsibility in education.

As encouraging as these changes are, they are small steps in light of the enormity of the problem. And given that the issue crosses into provincial responsibility, much more can also be done in having the provinces and federal government work towards a common vision.

2. Reform the Canadian Human Rights Commission
Grade: C-

In light of all the opposition from all sides of the political spectrum to problematic sections of the Canadian Human Rights Act, it is striking that it took a private member’s bill (Brian Storseth’s C-304) to finally abolish Section 13 in the summer of 2013.

This was a huge victory, but the current government can’t take much credit for it, apart from not actively opposing it. Much more can be done to reform or even abolish the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

(more…)

E. Calvin Beisner, Ph.D.. The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation: Religion is the root of any culture, and environmentalism has become a full-fledged religion in its own right. It is the most comprehensive substitute in the world today for Christianity so far as world view, theology, ethics, politics, economics, and science are concerned, and you need to understand it in order to counter it effectively, from presuppositions to policies, from classroom to movie theater, from evening network news to Internet and local newspaper. Read the full article here.

Looking for more quality research on this topic? Find a 76 page report that details a Christian response to “Climate Change” (or a 6 page summary) here.

Globe & Mail, August 30, 2010: The UN climate panel should only make predictions when it has solid scientific evidence and avoid straying into policy advocacy, a group of national science academies said in a report on Monday. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was hit with a wave of criticism after acknowledging in January that its 2007 global warming report had exaggerated the pace of Himalayan glaciers melting. It had previously said the report had overstated how much of the Netherlands is below sea level. Read more

Lorne Gunter, National Post, July 16, 2010:

Last week, the third of three allegedly independent inquiries into last fall’s Climategate scandal at Britain’s Climate Research Unit (CRU) was concluded. Like the other two, it found troubling behaviour by the scientists at the CRU or by the University of East Anglia, of which the CRU is a part — most notably attempts to hide data from critics and from government investigators. [Read more]

ARPA Note: For a quality perspective on “climate change” check out the Cornwall Alliance website.

Globe & Mail, July 5, 2010: A leading Dutch environment agency reported Monday that the seminal 2007 UN scientific report on climate change is too generalized and has even more errors than discovered so far — including one contributed by the agency itself. [Keep reading this article here.]

ARPA Note: Consider sending in a letter to the editor of your local paper on this topic, given the upcoming federal budget. Also, be sure to read this follow-up article to the one below, which provides concrete suggestions for change.