This Ottawa Citizen piece shows that 63 per cent of Canadians don’t believe that the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper is taking the issue of climate change seriously enough.

But John Wright, senior vice-president at polling firm Ipsos Reid, says the Tories may use this pessimism to their advantage. “If they are focused, and can get some positive spin on a made-in-Canada solution, they may exceed expectations and get some political mileage.”

Note the values-free characterization of “positive spin on a made-in-Canada solution.” This impartial delight in strategy over ethical responsibility is part of the problem in the North American political converation. When a professional like Wright so obviously admires the Tories’ tactics, naive readers are inclined to assume that means that the Tories actions on this issue are admirable.

There is, woefully, no evidence of that, so far.