Gore heads north for some Truth troops

2 Liberal MPs join army of recruits to undergo training to deliver his environmental message

By Susan Delacourt - Ottawa Bureau

OTTAWA–Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore is amassing a new Canadian army to spread his Nobel-winning message on climate change – and two Liberal MPs are among the recruits.

Next weekend, in Montreal, Gore will be schooling 200-plus Canadians to be new, international members of his Inconvenient Truth squad. Liberal MPs Glen Pearson (London North Centre) and Mauril Bélanger (Ottawa-Vanier) will be in Gore's classroom.

Though the invitation was extended to Canadians of all political stripes, Pearson and Bélanger are the only two elected MPs to sign up for the two-day training session.

The other attendees come from a range of backgrounds – athletes and teachers, and a large contingent of participants reportedly from Toronto. By signing up, they all commit themselves to go forth after next weekend and present the Gore slideshow/lecture on climate change to at least 10 more audiences in the coming year.

Gore is coming to Montreal armed with new, updated information on climate change and specific material for Canada in particular, which his Canadian trainees are expected to share with their future audiences. He's also done similar recruiting sessions in Britain, Australia, Spain and India.

Pearson, who's been out across Canada this week doing a road show of a different type – on poverty and the situation in Darfur – said he's keen on learning how to present the Inconvenient Truth lecture to Canadians because the environment and climate change are central to his political concerns.

He's the MP who won the by-election in November 2006 against Green Leader Elizabeth May – who placed second – and he believes that the environment should be the driving issue behind the next general election.

But it's also a personal passion. Pearson and his wife, Jane Roy, are active in the cause of bringing aid to war-torn Sudan and have adopted three children from the area.

He says that climate change goes hand in hand with the situation in Sudan.

"Darfur is really the result of climate change," he says. "In our work in Sudan, we're seeing more and more refugees coming out, not because of conflict, but because the Sahara is growing a kilometre a year closer to the region in which we work."

The West owes it to Africa, says Pearson, to fight climate change. "We caused it, as Western nations. Africa, more than any other place will suffer for us. So this is the third round. They had colonialism, they suffered for that, we had the Cold War, they suffered for that and now, because of climate change that we created, they're going to suffer for that as well. We have a moral responsibility to take action."

Bélanger, meanwhile, is also personally motivated.

"This is one of the most important challenges facing us and it's important that individuals, members of Parliament, anyone, be more knowledgeable and forceful in speaking about this," Belanger said.

"I'm a grandfather and that to me is very significant in the sense that my grandchildren will have as good a life as I've had, certainly not any worse and it's my responsibility as a human being to do the best I can to make sure that can happen."

Désirée McGraw is the vice-president of The Climate Project Canada, which organized next weekend's session. She went through the Gore training last year in Nashville and has since done the presentation to around 50 audiences.

"This training isn't for environmental experts," McGraw says. "It's really to reach out to new audiences."

The two-day course will cover a refresher/update session on the Inconvenient Truth show, lessons on how to make the information compelling to audiences and a focus on solutions.