Jean Chretien is no policy wonk, a master politician perhaps, but a policy wonk no. Yet it was this man, when the first smell of the sponsorship scandal hit, who committed Canada to Kyoto to get the bad political story off the front page. Excellent politics, poor policy. But policy be damned! The job of Chretien was politics and it is politics that keeps the Liberal government heading down this economically destructive road. The United States has not signed on, nor India, nor China. The Russians came in late, but they did so only to sell emission credits for good old hard currency. It is estimated that Canada will have to spend billions upon billions purchasing these credits to meet our Kyoto goals. Who will we be buying them from? From every tyranny and Banana Republic on the face of the earth. We are then supposed to delude ourselves into thinking that the governments of these states are going to act in the exact opposite way than they have always acted - that they will use this money to better the lot of their people, to build the institutions and infrastructure that is necessary for prosperity. It is aid without the human rights string attached. The money will be used to line the pockets of the ruling elite and to build up military power. Military power to be used against their own people. I'm sure Mr. Chretien's friend Robert Mugabe wishes he was 20 years younger.