The One-Tonne Floppe

The federal government paid comedian $85,000 to pitch its pro-Kyoto “One-Tonne Challenge” campaign.

It then backed him up with a $26 million marketing blitz.

Somehow, somewhere, some one in the federal bureaucracy thought this would be enough to convince Canadians to dramatically alter their life style choices and reduce greenhouse gas emission.

It didn’t work.

According to media reports a government study concludes:

"There is overall recognition that the One-Tonne Challenge should have been complemented by additional measures [such as economic instruments and regulations] in order to motivate timely action and in order for the program to be successful.”

In other words, the only true way to “motivate” Canadians into cutting back on emissions is to coerce them into it with “economic instruments” which likely means massive taxes.

Backers of Kyoto should remember this.

If the government ever gets serious about implementing Kyoto it won’t be funny guy Mercer who’s in charge: it will be the taxman.