Alarmist Canadian Minister fired

Following his narrow victory in the Canadian general election, Prime Minister Paul Martin has fired global warming alarmist Environment Minister David Anderson from his cabinet.

Mr. Anderson reacted angrily to his rejection. The Vancouver Sun reported (July 30), “The Victoria MP said he believes Mr. Martin’s advisers gave in to demands from the National Post, the Calgary Herald, the Alberta government, and pro-business lobby groups that all wanted him fired from cabinet.”

Terence Corcoran, editor-in-chief of the Financial Post, reacted, “The National Post and the Financial Post have certainly published many columns and commentaries on Mr. Anderson’s global warming crusade, but to imagine that our newspaper also somehow joined a backroom cabal to apply pressure on Mr. Martin to dump Mr. Anderson is sheer fantasy.”

Mr. Anderson has said that he will now work with the left-wing New Democratic Party on certain environmental causes. The new environment minister is Stphane Dion, M.P., a former senior research fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.