Well here I am trying to get active.  Since October, 2006  I’ve been trying to meet with my Member of Parliament,  Lee Richardson, Conservative, Calgary Centre.  I finally got to see him April 04, 2007.   I decided to go there because the Conservative government had withdrawn from the Kyoto Accord.  Years earlier I took pride that the government of the day had signed on as a member only to discover much later that it was basically for P.R.  I was not pleased with the ‘made in Canada solution’ that Harpers Conservatives proposed and was tired of them always blaming the Liberals and their years of inaction.  I wanted the leadership that Harper promised.  That’s why I voted for the Conservatives in the last federal election.  Harper showed he was capable of doing the “tough thing” with the Income Trust.  That was a reversal of a campaign promise and was very unpopular with business and many individual Canadian investors but it was done none the less.   

In my initial discussions with Lee Richardson’s office I had referenced two reports I had recently viewed, the Fifth estates’ report “The Denial Game” and Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”.  The Denial Game explained how the American government under George W. Bush was handling the environmental issue and that the individual who produced this very effective plan of disinformation came to Canada to present it to members of the Conservative Party including Stephen Harper.  At the request of Mr. Richardson’s office staff I supplied copies of both programs for them to view. 

When I initially met with Lee Richardson , I note in hindsight, I didn’t receive the friendly hand shake he freely offered the businessman who was seen just before me.  Within minutes of sitting down with him I found myself challenging Lee on his conduct.  I pointed out he was rude, appeared angry and, in my opinion, was being very disrespectful.  He settled down and we continued.  When asked if he had viewed the material I had sent his office he informed me he hadn’t.  He guessed ”The Denial Game” was a C.B.C. production and said that automatically made it slanted and biased.  I found this a strange comment given it was the C.B.C. reports on lead levels in Tuna and the Sponsorship Affair, to name a few, that caused government officials to take action and both issues were covered nationally on all the news networks.  He told me he fell asleep watching “ An inconvenient Truth”, blaming the format it was presented in.  He went on to say he didn’t like Al Gore and likened him to Michael Moore.  He contended that Al Gore was not a scientist, fed upon the ignorance of people and was an alarmist.  I found his opinion of Al Gore very surprising as his assistant, Will, had informed me earlier that he had arranged for  2 tickets for Lee Richardson to see Al Gore when he came to Calgary for a speaking engagement at the Chamber of Commerce later in the month.  These tickets were hard to come by, it was sold out and that Will had to use some “contacts” to get them. 

When Lee Richardson began to show further disrespect for me I ended the meeting.  Earlier I was hoping I’d have enough questions to cover the 30 minute meeting but found I was ending it after less then 20 minutes.    I had also wanted to tour the office after visiting Lee to see if our politicians where taking on a leadership role and leading by example. I had earlier arranged for this tour with Will.  Did the office recycle their paper products, their used batteries and what did they do with their obsolete or worn office equipment/furniture?.  Lee stated that as I’d ended the meeting with him I would not be allowed to tour his office.  In short, I was ”kicked out” of the office.