The latest leaders debate was an unwatchable mess that resembled a malfunctioning Chuck E Cheese animatronic puppet show. But what made it truly sad was that the three men competing to lead our country had a verbal pissing match over who could build climate-torching pipelines the fastest. It epitomized the race to the middle that this campaign has become. Just look at a graph of how party popularity has changed over the year. It looks like snakes in a feeding frenzy.

It was a helpful reminder that voting is important, but not enough. Leadership isn’t going to come from the top down on climate. And that leadership vacuum is what the newly released Leap Manifesto is meant to fill. But it’s been fascinating to watch the media react to this thing by dusting off their cold war rhetoric. “Know who else has manifestos? The Reds. Know who else leaps? Chairman Mao. And frogs…”

One of Canada’s papers of record actually referred to it as “madness.” They apparently concluded that “Caring for one another and caring for the planet” is literally insane. I’m curious what the cure is for this sickness? And does it involve several spoonfuls of oil and Vitamin catastrophic climate change?

It shows just how pathetically narrow the Canadian media has set the range of acceptable debate on climate. They’re fine with environmentalism steered by the free market and entrepreneurs, but the Leap Manifesto proposes a new approach, one that might actually work.

I’ve signed this thing. It’s reasonable, doable, and our best chance at survival. And if that’s “madness,” then call me Crazy Uncle Scott. My nephew already does.

This video was created for the Toronto Star. 

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