A Simple Question For Memb ers Of The Suzuki Nation

"Okay, who is ready to quit their job and sign up to help him?"

Al Gore meets `Suzuki Nation'
April 28, 2007
Bob Hepburn

The instant the doors to the crowded elevator closed, an elegantly dressed businesswoman who was squashed into one corner spoke up loudly and excitedly: "Okay, who is ready to quit their job and sign up to help him?"

The "him" was Al Gore.

We were riding up the elevator in a downtown Toronto hotel late last month to meet Gore after he had delivered to a business audience his now-famous presentation on global warming, which formed the basis of the Oscar-winning documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth.

The woman's excitement mirrored the response that follows Gore, known by many of his fans as "The Goracle," wherever he appears in Canada.

That excitement was present Monday when Gore spoke to 5,000 people packed into a Regina hockey rink, and when he spoke later that day to 1,600 people at a Calgary concert hall at an event sponsored by the local chamber of commerce.

Today, Gore will be back in Toronto, giving his presentation to a sold-out event at the Green Living Show at Exhibition Place, where tickets were going for up to $240 each, and to an invitation-only event at the Hummingbird Centre sponsored by an investment company and several law firms.

That excitement is most noticeable among Canadians who feel deeply about the environment and are eager to take action. A report prepared for the Harper government and obtained by the Star labelled these people, who it said represent about one-fifth of the population, "the Suzuki Nation."

In Toronto today, Gore will once again meet with "Suzuki Nation" members. Suzuki, of course, is David Suzuki, the highly respected Canadian environmentalist who has a dedicated following around the world.

Like Gore, Suzuki has reached rock-star status, speaking to huge crowds and obtaining vast media coverage.

This week alone, Gore will have given his slide show on climate change eight times. Suzuki is just as active. Earlier this year, he made 40 appearances as part of a 30-day, cross-Canada bus tour aimed at promoting the fight against global warming.

Together, Gore and Suzuki are influencing a nation, especially young Canadians, like no politician is these days. And together, they have put climate change at the top of the political agenda. Politicians are slowly becoming aware of that, as demonstrated this week by the Harper government's effort to put a positive spin on its much-hyped plan to combat global warming.

For his part, Suzuki told Environment Minister John Baird face-to-face yesterday that the plan was a disappointment and showed the Conservatives were out of touch with Canadians.

Just as they have fans, Gore and Suzuki have some critics, like the young protester Monday in Calgary who ranted to people entering the concert hall that Gore "is lying to you."

These critics also like to personalize the debate, saying Gore's large house in Tennessee isn't energy efficient, or that the bus in which Suzuki rode across Canada was polluting the air. Did they expect him to walk or ride a bicycle?

The global warming skeptics also claim they are being muzzled by the media. The opposite is more likely, though. They probably receive too much publicity given the preponderance of scientific evidence linking global warming to man-made emissions.

Still, despite the skeptics, Gore believes he is seeing progress in Canada.

On his website, AlGore.com, he wrote about his visit to Calgary. "What impressed me was the willingness of the energy company executives to have an open and honest discussion about the problem and why I believe that these resources should not be developed.

"In his introduction of me, Gary Holden, CEO of the ENMAX Corporation said, `Mr. Gore has ignited a spirit of co-operation that, a year ago, could not have been anticipated.'"

Gore said that while "it's safe to say that I did not change the minds of everyone in the auditorium," he is hopeful that environmentalists and energy industry executives are at last starting to work together. "The conversation has been taken to a higher, more productive level," he wrote.

Sadly, it seems Baird and Prime Minister Stephen Harper have failed to understand the reasons behind the excitement that Gore and Suzuki are generating, from a Toronto hotel elevator to the Calgary oil patch.

Clearly, Canadians hunger for real action on climate change and want their political leaders to take decisive action now, not at some future date.

Indeed, the Canadian electorate, after years of indifference, is once again passionate about improving our environment – and sophisticated enough to see through the Tories' propaganda about their climate-change program.