WHAT ARE THE POLITICIANS SAYING ABOUT WATER?

Monday, April 4th, 2011

The Elections - Day 10

THE LIBERALS ON THE RIGHT TO WATER? On Saturday, the Liberals released their election platform. At their May 2009 convention in Vancouver, the Liberals passed a resolution stating they would, “enshrine water as a human right to ensure that all people living in Canada are legally entitled to safe, clean, drinking water and water for sanitation in sufficient quantities.” Is there any mention of that in their election platform, especially given Conservative opposition to it and now two United Nations resolutions this year making the right to water and sanitation legally binding and equal to all other human rights? No. To read the Liberal party platform on ‘A Canadian Freshwater Strategy’, you can go to http://www.liberal.ca/platform/clean-environment/stewardship/.

THE RIGHT TO WATER: The NDP has long supported the human right to water and sanitation.

The Green Party’s platform states they will, “Protect the fundamental right to water for all Canadians today and in future generations by amending the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to enshrine the right of future Canadians to an ecological heritage that includes breathable air and drinkable water.” To read the Green Party platform on ‘Water protection and conservation’, go to http://greenparty.ca/node/13336.

HARPER OFFSIDE ON KEYSTONE PIPELINE: A New York Times editorial states that the Keystone XL pipeline that “would link the tar sands fields of northern Alberta to Texas refineries" and poses a major threat to water supplies on both sides of the border.

Operations in Alberta have already created 65 square miles of toxic holding ponds, which kill migrating birds and pollute downstream watersheds, a serious matter for native communities. In the United States, the biggest potential problem is pipeline leaks. It would cross the Ogallala Aquifer, a shallow underground reservoir of enormous importance for agriculture that also provides drinking water for two million people. A pipeline leaking diluted bitumen into groundwater could have disastrous consequences.

The Conservatives back Keystone and Stephen Harper, when he was in Washington this past February for the signing of the perimeter security declaration, made a ‘personal pitch’ to US President Barack Obama to support it.

Link: http://www.canadians.org/campaignblog/?p=7313