The PenOpticon

It looks like Surrey school trustee, Heather Stilwell is once again revving up her right wing engines.  She isn't banning books this time, but she is trying to keep Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth out of schools in Surrey, British Columbia — unless alternate views on climate change can also be taught.  In a Canadian Press wire story she explains:  "I've read enough that there is more than one thought in the issue of climate change, global warming and that Al Gore is not the be all and end all of opinion about that".

No 'mam, he is not. That's cuz Gore was not stating opinions about climate change. He was simply explaining the facts.  The facts 'mam, nothing but the facts.  As facts go, students should be taught the basics of how greenhouse gasses function. They should learn something about the now infamous Keeling curve and Milankovitch cycles .  Some select readings from Tim Flannery's The Weather Makers might be enough to supplement the material covered by Gore.  Perhaps students should also monitor climate change reports issued by the IPCC and note the political squabbling of the U.S. and China as they try to shirk their responsibilities.  The sum of these things would help balance Gore's movie with additional evidence

Speaking of being fair and balanced, why was Stilwell quoted as if she had some real expertise in the area of climate change? As if!  Why was it not pointed out that this is the same woman who cost Surrey taxpayers 1.2 million in legal fees when she tried to ban children's books that dealt with same-sex parents?  Or how about her brief stint as leader of the Christian Heritage Party of Canada? Shouldn't it also have been noted that  Stilwell recently sought the nomination in Surrey for the federal Conservative Party of Canada.

Given Harper's dubious record on climate change, it's instructive to see the kind of mind that is attracted to the Conservative side of the House.  With luck, federal politics will never be anything more than a distant dream for the likes of Heather Stilwell.