SCARY IS AS SCARY DOES

The tip of the Cons' main street election campaign is becoming clearer and clearer -- the five pie-orities, promises made, promises sorta kept, bags of cash to Quebec, etc. But beneath the surface is the true behemoth, which they hope will waylay the Liberals and fracture the Kyoto-hugging opposition into a messy, finger-wagging mob that only a mother could love. Harpor's tone has shifted not so gently over the past 40 days, but there is a sudden calmness to his message, despite the fact that he's gone from 'standing firm' on his 45-year glacier-speed plan (that's glacier in growth, not under global warming) for climate change to now dancing with the Kyoto people without even touching.
He went from saying that the Conservatives' made in Canada plan, launched last fall, was the answer. Now, he's talking like the Liberals, Greens and NDP rolled into one, except for the concrete plan part of the solution.
The following bite-size, media-massaging quotes show his shape-shifting, but do not show his interior motive:

"I think the science is clear that these changes are occurring. They're
serious and we must act... You can't just snap your fingers and reduce
emissions by one third."
"The fundamental challenge of our time is to make real progress on
environmental protection while preserving our jobs and standards of living."
"(Canadians) will recognize that they have clear choices to make on the most
important issues facing our country," Stephen Harper said.
"A clear choice between decisive action that is building a stronger economy,
a cleaner government and a record of results, and going back to drift,
scandal and empty rhetoric."
"The first step in any such plan is to try to stabilize emissions and
obviously over the longer term to reduce them."
"I think realistically the only way you can get absolute reductions is
through the application of new technology over time."I don't think
realistically we can tell Canadians, stop driving your car, stop going to
work, stop heating your house in the winter. These are not realistic
solutions."

Okay, as in all good 12-step programs, admitting the problem is step one. Harpor finally did that.
However, while it sounds elementary enough, he buffers his admission with a warning.
Then he ties the challenge with "preserving our jobs and standards of living."
As though some other party was saying 'Damn the economy, we've got trees to save!' In fact, as the government that helped get the Alberta tarsands off the ground and into production, the federal Liberals are now taking a lashing from the Cons for not only signing Kyoto and doing little after it, but also for creating the pollution that came with the wealth that all happened under their watch. Kind of like how the Cons pointed at them for not doing more to save a kidnapped citizen despite having labelled the same guy a terrorist -- oh, but we won't talk about that.
The Cons want to plant the seed that Liberal (and NDP and Green) solution is reckless and a danger to the Canadian standard of living. Not at all like the after effects of having Mike Harris' team tackle the financial coffers, treat it like some back-country sheep, then point at the handful of wool sticking to their pants and demanding cotton.
It was their crying wolf during last election, bought gleefully by the sluggish MSM, that painted the Liberals as desperate and living off fear mongering.
But as witnessed by their recent actions, fearmongering has its place.