I’ve got this thing about time lately. Yes, the accidental pun master strikes again!

“They,” whoever they are, say that, “Timing is everything.”

For politicians, this is true if you want your constituents to remember what you were once responsible for. But timing becomes an ‘inconvenient truth’ when, the truth is, their actions were ill-timed or illogical.

The territorial leaders and provincial premiers just broke from their annual, “Hey, what was this meeting about again?” photo-op and get-together. Only this time the setting was Whitehorse, Yukon. Now the goal of the meeting as I understand it was to establish an inter-provincial free-trade deal.

Call me confused, but aren’t free-trade agreements between countries?

Do I now need a passport to cross the provincial line between Manitoba and Saskatchewan? From what I can tell, all that was accomplished in the loosest meaning of the word was that a ‘sorta,’ maybe agreement had been reached for beer and wine to be moved and sold across the country… ‘sorta.’

The new Carbon yadda yadda Tax was discussed, and nothing was agreed to because the discussers had separate agendas – apparently even having difficultly agreeing to some of the lyrics to Kumbaya.

A carbon tax applied in the northern most regions of the country, where this middle of the summer meeting was held, would be economical suicide – fossil fuels are not a luxury in the winter months, but a life and death necessity. Perhaps the delegation should schedule a follow up meeting in February and see the reaction when some brave fool brings up the subject of a carbon tax.

Moving along to our friendly neighbours south of the border, I see that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), aka, President Barack Obama’s best friend (or is it his favourite hobby?), has decided that the world must continue to be saved and they are now going to target the airline industry to cut down on carbon emissions.

Now, I’ve reported on this before, but it deserves repeating – Before they call on Robert Redford, Darryl Hannah, Neil Young, and the rest of the Hollywood jetsetters, (who all regularly travel the world), to march up to the podium, perhaps the EPA should lightly tap on the doors of the White House and go back in time to December of last year. The president and his entourage attended the Paris, 21^st Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) meeting along with people from 194 other countries. The average distance flown to attend the meeting by all members was approximately 9,000 miles emitting 300,000 tons of CO2 – all of this to attend a meeting to… wait for it… reduce CO2 emissions!

Tylenol alert!

President Obama flew to Paris and back, of course, in Air Force One, for a total of 14.4 hours at $180,118 per hour for a total cost to the taxpayers of $2,593,670. Once landed, his massive motorcade of armoured “Ground Force One” Chevrolet Suburbans burned up even more fossil fuel – the cost for this parade of iron alone was $784,821! As the president winds down his time in office, may I make another suggestion?

Perhaps the EPA’s plan to vilify air travel emissions is an ill-timed farewell present that won’t be part of the Obama legacy now or any other time in the future, which he may be reluctant to go back in time to.