A New Liberal Climate?

Former Paul Martin advisor and long-time Liberal strategist John Duffy has a busy week ahead of him with this week's leadership convention in Montreal. It's not because he's a delegate or is campaigning for one of the candidates; it's because the convention is where Duffy is launching his latest initiative, climateliberal.ca.

In a nutshell, the project is a rallying cry for his fellow Grits to put aside divisions of the past and unite for a common cause, in this case (in addition to and as part of getting back into government) fighting global climate change. The site as it is now is really just a slick compilation of articles, research and a handful of Web 2.0 features surrounding climate change issues, but its greater purpose is as a vehicle to re-engage Canadian Liberals in fighting for the same team, against a common enemy.

It's an interesting premise, and one that's picking up surprising steam given the leadership convention and all the other issues it's competing with for attention this week. Time will tell whether it has enough steam this week to outshine the "Quebec as a Nation" debate, and ultimately whether it has enough meat to avoid being another version of Rick Mercer's One-Tonne Challenge commercials.

One of the reasons behind its early success is undoubtedly Duffy's uncanny ability to generate buzz from within the party and through news media. But the other reason, and what may end up being the issue that tugs at the requisite heart strings, is how it fits into a pretty consistent liberal heritage of fixing stuff...big stuff. Duffy points to two main examples - Canada's social welfare system 75 years ago, and the Charter of Rights & Freedoms 35 years ago - of how the Liberals have "stepped up" to solve some of the country's biggest problems as the government.

So...will climate change be the next Charter? Will a solution to global warming go down with social welfare as one of Canada's defining accomplishments? Or will it end up being seen as simply a lot of...wait for it...hot air? Time will always tell, but at least we'll get some glimpse after this week.