Danielle Smith defends the Calgary Stampede

The City of Calgary is considering repealing its short-term disposables bylaw. The policy, aimed at reducing waste, has sparked public outrage, perhaps because the law supports federal regulations banning single-use plastics. Albertans are driven by the hateful notion that the federal Liberal government can't tell Albertans what's best for them, and neither can their municipalities.

The city didn't ban it, but it did require businesses to offer these items only upon request and charge for them: 15 cents per paper bag at your favorite burger joint, for example.

Calgary Municipal Council has adopted a litter reduction strategy because “the production, use and disposal of these items uses up natural resources and harms our water bodies, ecosystems and wildlife.” Single-use items like plastic bags usually end up in landfills, but are often thrown onto the streets, where they end up blown across our lawns as they travel to local fields and streams.

But why should we give people the pleasure of pulling a hamburger out of a bag only to throw it away a few minutes later? Why is plastic a particular concern? Courtney Lindwall has prepared an excellent summary of the reasons for eliminating plastic waste in her article “Single Use Plastics 101”.

Lindwall explains: “Single-use plastics are a prime example of the problems associated with waste culture. Rather than investing in quality goods that will last, we prioritize convenience over long-term impact and long-term impact. Our reliance on these plastics means we're accumulating waste at an alarming rate. According to the United Nations Environment Programme, we produce 300 million tons of plastic worldwide every year, half of which is single-use.”

In a United Nations agreement, the vast majority of the world's countries committed to ending plastic pollution by 2024 with the goal of implementing a single-use plastic policy and significantly reducing plastic pollution by 2030.

Plastic bags are banned in most countries, but Canada has passed regulations banning a wide range of single-use plastics — including bags, cutlery, straws, stir sticks and the ring bearers found in six-packs.

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A federal court judge has ruled against Canada's ban, concluding that the government overreached when it deemed “plastic products” toxic under Canada's Environmental Protection Act. Ottawa is attractive.

Eliminating single-use plastics will only reduce waste if they are not replaced with other materials. That's why Calgary's bylaws cover other materials, such as paper bags. However, the law also includes a list of common-sense exemptions, such as bags for transporting bulk items such as fruit, bags for bakery products or meat, and small paper bags.

When the law came into force, Prime Minister Daniel Smith sprung into action. His comments about the superiority of ideology over common sense made him happy to repeat Calgary Herald and around dinner tables across the province. Conservative politicians and their hijacked news outlets have agreed to dust off the “common sense” marketing that former Ontario Premier Mike Harris used to great effect.

It doesn't matter that Pierre Polievre thinks there is an electrician who can harness lightning into electricity. The federal Conservative leader is the self-proclaimed architect of the New Common Sense revolution. This is the kind of mind that thinks cryptocurrency is better than the Canadian dollar, that COVID-19 vaccine mandates are “controls against freedom” and that pipelines should be built in every direction in the middle of the climate crisis.

Other smart moves by conservative leaders around the country include Doug Ford's attempt to sell Greenbelt land to developers who are friends of his, and Smith's public disclosure to conspiracy theorist Tucker Carlson that he regrets not having the power to cut the prosecution. of certain persons in Alberta.

But perhaps the biggest violation of common sense is the conservative disdain for wind and solar power, energy storage, and electric vehicles. It happens to be the world's fastest-growing climate solution and the biggest threat to the fossil fuel industry.

Decades of peer-reviewed scientific research have led to a broad consensus that burning fossil fuels is one of the largest contributors to global warming and the source of air pollution that causes millions of deaths worldwide.

The Conservative Party of Canada does not look like a rational organization. It seems like a pro-pollution political movement. You don't defend our right to throw away petroleum-based plastic forks or support carbon bombs cooking the planet in protected areas, conservatives are not clean.

Conservatives are relentlessly opposed to clean electricity, clean cars, and even streets free of fast food junk. Despite this dirty mind, Canadians are willing to allow Conservative politicians to lead us into an uncertain future as time runs out on our ability to reverse the destructive trend toward an overheated planet.

Rob Miller is a retired systems engineer formerly with General Dynamics Canada who now volunteers at the Calgary Climate Hub and writes on behalf of Eco-Elders for Climate Action, but any opinions expressed in his work are his own.