Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s principal apologist in the national media, the Globe and Mail columnist John Ibbitson, had a little hissy today about the vacuous nature of the federal government’s impending Clean Air Act. It seemed, for a moment, that he was actually going to criticize the Harper government – not quite a first, but a rarity.

It quickly became clear, however, that Ibbitson was just helping with the Conservative spin, which is that climate change is ignorable and that the real issue is smog. Ibbitson wrote that the failure o the Canadian government to meet the (climate change) commitments of the Kyoto Accord is entirely the fault of the previous Liberal government (which is mostly true).

Then he went on to criticize Harper, et all, for not doing more to capitalize on this Opposition failure.

“But the Tories had another calculation in mind: Most Canadians were confused about global warming, which may or may not be linked to increased carbon-dioxide emissions, and which may or may not be reversible.

“But urban Canadians are very aware that smog is getting worse. The brown soup of noxious gases hanging over cities can ruin the finest summer day, contributes to a widespread increase in asthma and hastens the death of the frail.”

Ibbitson then criticized Harper for not dealing effectively enough with smog, glossing over the greater failure to address climate change.

It is, once again, a mystery that a lead columnist in Canada’s most prestigious daily paper can write that climate change “may or may not be linked to increased carbon-dioxide emissions.” Every science academy in the developed world has said this is the case. Shell Oil acknowledges the truth of it, as does President George W. Bush.

Imagine the notion that John Ibbitson is not as smart – or not as well-read – as George Bush?