TRURO - The validity of global warming was raised to boos during last night's candidates debate.
Christian Heritage Party leader Jim Hnatiuk said the International Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) is a political, and not scientific, body.
"It is the IPCC that raised alarm bells about man-made global warming with very little scientific backing," he said to a nearly packed Marigold Cultural Centre of about 200. "Today, there are more than 32,000 scientists that openly dispute the claims of man-made global warming, 9,000 of them have PhDs, so you're booing the PhDs of 9,000."
Green Party candidate Jason Blanch said the intergovernmental panel on climate change consists of 2,000 government-appointed scientists who annually produce peer reviews on climate change.
"I'm not even going to argue whether global warming is happening or not," he said. "There's no doubt."
Hnatiuk and Blanch were joined by Conservative Scott Armstrong, Liberal Jim Burrows and NDP Mark Austin. Independent candidate Kate Graves declined to an invitation to participate.
All six will be on the ballot Monday when voters in Cumberland Colchester Musquodoboit Valley elect their new member of Parliament in a byelection.
Gun control, immigration, Colchester's civic centre project and infrastructure funding were also raised during the debate.
Armstrong and Burrows both said they support eliminating the registry.
Austin said government needs to protect victims of crime but the Liberal long-gun registry "has been a debacle since day one." And since the Conservatives came to power only three private members bills have been introduced.
"This is a phoney effort to abolish the gun registry," he said.
Austin defended his party voting against the private members bills saying they were "not meant to succeed" and did not make provisions to protect victims of crime.
"As terrible as it is to be made to feel like a criminal because you have to register your gun, along with your car and your dog and so forth, it's even worse to be a victim of a crime," he said.
Hnatiuk said the only positive thing to come from the registry was finding out how not to fight crime.
"The logical way to protect Canadians from gun-related crimes is to punish the criminal use of guns and not the ownership of guns," said the owner of Nova Scotia's largest gun store.
The rift between the riding and the prime minister remained a hot topic.
Armstrong said on at least two occasions it was time for the riding to move on while other candidates raised it as a concern.
Candidates were also asked about their thoughts on immigration. Blanch said there was nothing more he likes than introducing his children to people from other countries and "have the opportunity to see that we're all not like the men you see sitting here in front of you," he said to a round of applause.
jmalloy@trurodaily.com
CHP leader questions global warming during debate
- Number of views : 821
- Rate
- Top of the page
Comments
-
- Too many lines
- - March 1st, 2010 at 14:40:12
Remember Casey was going to rid us of the gun registry oh come to think of it the toll road too. Why would Armstrong or Burrows be any less a failure?
-
- Morgan
- - March 1st, 2010 at 14:40:06
Re the Gun Registry Issue:
The Conservatives have repeatedly tried to kill it. The Conservative MP's vote to kill it and the Lib's and NDP combine with the Bloc to save it. That does not mean the Conservatives did squat - it only means it isn't going to change until there are more Conservatives. -
- Heck Ler
- - March 1st, 2010 at 14:40:02
Observations:
The questions left much to be desired. In fact most of the questions were the same questions reworded.....over and over.... sure made for a long night in the horrible seats at the Marigold.
Armstrong was shorted considerable time on his closing remarks. -
- flogger
- - March 1st, 2010 at 14:39:53
There are soooooo many sheep out there ...
-
- Bill
- - March 1st, 2010 at 14:39:50
Religion has no place in politics. He believes stories out of a religious book with no proof but doesn't believe in Global Warming as it happens. I do not need a politician making decisions on what he thinks GOD wants him to do.
Christian Heritage, what if he was Muslim Heritage. Keep Religion out of politics. -
- Chris
- - March 1st, 2010 at 14:39:46
This is directed toward Christian Heritage Party leader Jim Hnatiuk. The data that has been gathered to prove or disprove global climate change show without a doubt that both the earths climate is changing and that humans have added to this climate change by increasing the levels of CO2 in the atmospher along with other greenhouse gases. In the past temp. has increased and than CO2, but now that there is so much CO2 ithat is being put into Earth's atmospher the Temp. is increasing after.This can be shown by the many climate change models which show the past data and current data as well as the predicted outcome of what will happen if the CO2 continues to increase. These data sets include solar activity as well. There are also the two polar regions to take into consideration when looking at climate change. As these two polar regions melt less light is going to be reflected back into space. Therefore the increase in temp. on top of what is already happening. I would like to also point out that one of the biggest areas of change in temp has been in the global regions. Along with the ice sheets melting which are on land will increase the sea level. When fresh water enters the oceans in large amounts it changes the salinity of the oceans. Now picture a belt that moves warm water to the artic region and then brings this water back to the warmer region. Now this water drops from a high level to a lower level in the ocean , this happens because of the difference in tempurature and is related to the salinity of the water. If the salinity is changed where this drop happens, which is off the coast of Greenland, the belt will slow down. This belt has already slowed down and is continuing to do so. When it reaches a certain point Nova Scotia will be effected directly. So in closing to this very brief overview of the importance of the global climate change I would like to add that all political parties need to take global climate change very serious and need to ensure that out future generations have a better future with cleaner sources of energy and are able to grow grains ect. in a warmer climate. Evolution is the key to our success as a Human species.
-
- dave
- - March 1st, 2010 at 14:39:43
come on - it's not global warming anymore - now it's climate change...where everything can be blamed on good old capitalism and hard work. those other ice ages - and warming trends, sunspot activity? forget it - it's bush's fault!
-
- Skeptic
- - March 1st, 2010 at 14:39:42
The valididty of global warming and the gun registry??
What about jobs, dying family farms, youth leaving town, small businesses closing, loss of faith in our electoral system, poverty, roads, pollution, world hunger?
Was the debate that irrelevant or just the coverage? Did any candidate inspire? -
- norm
- - March 1st, 2010 at 14:39:41
9000 phd's out of how many??-+67,000 are granted every year in US and germany alone.
So yes they deserve respect,but what about the (est)4,000,000 who either don't weigh in or are opposed to their postulations.
Michael Crichton's novel was not a scientific work---just an expose of how bad science is developed and passed on by internet rumor and people squawking the Sky isn't Falling
Global Warming is a theory,the phenomenon is real=climate change,You can't make someone's theory go away---you have to come up with a better one.That's science-conjecture,theory ,evidence--proof.
I wish armatures would stop spouting counter-theories with a pathetic paucity of evidence. -
- Anderson
- - March 1st, 2010 at 14:39:37
Since nobody's done it yet.
Winner: Jason Blanch - Green
2nd: Jim Burrows - Liberal
3rd: Mark Austin - NDP
4th: Scott Armstrong - Conservative
5th: Crazy guy - CHP
Blanch stole the show. Intelligent and witty.
Burrows tooks some good shots at the Tory record.
Austin was ok. Seemed weak on the Atlantic gateway issue.
Armstrong sounded like an angry robot that was running out of batteries near the end. He didn't even say Harper once during the whole thing - nor would he say there was no rift with the PM.
Crazy guy - I was sitting next to some of Scott Armstrong's supporters who were applauding what he had to say. Really?...I mean REALLY?
Big minus to the moderator who reprimanded Burrows for attacking Harper's record (even though Armstrong was there to defend him) and then asking 2 questions about Harper. -
- Sam
- - March 1st, 2010 at 14:39:36
These debates generally don't mean much to anyone who is truly informed of the issues. The scope of questioning is limited and the responses are crafted to suit the party line .
As far as local issues go, you'll not see them in this type of debate as these issues aren't big picture . While important, local issues don't fit into the template the show is geared toward.
In reality, these debates are mostly puppet shows so the results of last nights debate don't suprise me at all. -
- Sebastian
- - March 1st, 2010 at 14:39:32
Re The pending Copenhagen Agreement:
Britain's Lord Christopher Monckton blew the lid somewhat when he gave an address at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota earlier this month. The public was informed about the 181 pages, dated Sept. 15, that comprise the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Changea rough draft of what could be signed come December.
Last week the Wall Street Journal, that most radical of newspapers, weighed in on supporting the serious questioning of what amounts to an unprecedented power grab by the UN. From the WSJ article: The scheme for the new institutional arrangement under the Convention that starts on page 18 contains the provision for a 'government.' The aim is to give a new as yet unnamed UN body the power to directly intervene in the financial, economic, tax and environmental affairs of all the nations that sign the Copenhagen treaty.
The end result of this new, unelected UN government? A flow of wealth via a global levy from developed to developing countries by 2020 in the range of $70 billion to $140 billion per year.
One may have asked Mr. Blanch how the attendance of Cem Ozdemir, Co-Leader of the German Greens, at Bilderberg '09 fits into this puzzle. Along with the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Affairs, the Bilderberg Group is one of the major globalist string-pullers behind the curtains.
The answer one may have received may have something to do with the Greens being the ONLY political movement with a global mandate AND structure, with the notion of Green firmly positioned in the public psyche of Western electorates.
Greens are being played like old fiddles. Their historical political naivete is no longer acceptable in this day and age. Caveat emptor. -
- Moriarty
- - March 1st, 2010 at 14:39:30
.......Harper and the Conservatives have had 4 years to do something about the gun registry, and they've don *squat*....
They don't want to upset the bureaucracy because that's where they want to place all their cronies.
Thanks Hnatiuk for tipping your hand and showing what a dangerous radical you are.
As this gets closer it's very clear that Austin is the only *real* choice. -
- Debby
- - March 1st, 2010 at 14:39:28
I was truly disappointed with the questions that were asked to the candidates.
No questions on local businesses, which I think are struggling..some have closed like Wacky's.
Nothing on social issues like poverty yet two questions on long guns.
What a shame..
