VANCOUVER -- A political cage match is being fought for the right to wear green -- and Jack Layton is trying hard to keep his New Democrats at the centre of the ring.
"Our party has really, for quite a long time, been known as a party that tries to get things done on the environment," Mr. Layton said after a caucus retreat here yesterday.
"We're hoping that we can do that again in this critical situation, where we have a Parliament that's a minority Parliament, where every party now says they want to get something done."
When polls like one earlier this month by Decima Research suggest the environment has substantially eclipsed the other concerns of Canadians -- including heath care, Afghanistan, taxes and the economy -- savvy political leaders heed warnings of climate change.
That expediency leaves environmentalists optimistic. But they are also cautious.
"We're not sure if people are actually listening or just nodding and saying 'mmm hmm,' " John Bennett, the executive director of the Climate Action Network Canada, said of the recent chatter from elected officials.
And he is unwilling to pick a favourite when asked which party is Canada's environmental champion.
The Greens under new leader Elizabeth May are unlikely to form a majority government in Ottawa any time soon.
The Liberals are making noise about the environment and have elected a leader who has put the issue front and centre. But they spent 13 years in government bending over backward trying to protect industry at the expense of climate change, Mr. Bennett said.
Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently said Canada cannot meet its targets over the next five years for the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. So the key question, says Ms. May, is: Does Mr. Harper get it? Everything he's done so far, she says "comes close to global sabotage."
On the cross-Canada level, that leaves Mr. Layton and his NDP, which now holds the balance of power in the House of Commons and is demanding Conservative action on climate change.
But Mr. Bennett is unwilling to give Mr. Layton full marks for his past action or his current policy.
He and the other environmental groups in his coalition called this week for a number of measures to reduce greenhouse gases. The most important of these, he said yesterday, is a requirement that the major emitters -- petroleum producers, the energy sector and big industry -- should meet targets spelled out in the Kyoto accord between now and 2012.
The Liberals said in 2005, when they were in office, that they would force the big emitters to reduce their average greenhouse-gas emissions by 45 megatonnes annually before 2012. And the New Democrats called for the same levels of reduction last fall.
But the environmentalists say a decrease of at least 100 megatonnes is needed to avoid environmental catastrophe.
So Mr. Layton has raised his expectations.
"We are all going to have to move a lot faster than any of us thought because so much time has been wasted," he told reporters yesterday. "We have put forward plans to meet our Kyoto targets time and time again, but governments -- the Liberals first and the Conservatives -- have so far refused to adopt those kinds of plans."
Does that mean going to a reduction of the full 100 megatonnes annually? Mr. Layton says that's his current objective, but he will not verbally commit to pressing the government on that specific number.
Nor will the Liberals, who say such a commitment would be irresponsible without some serious thought.
The industries that would be affected argue that those kinds of regulations would cause serious harm to the economy. Still, Mr. Layton says it's time to step up the pressure.
"I think you have to take dramatic and strong action to take us as far as we possibly can toward the Kyoto objectives. If you don't take that action you are never going to get there," he argued.
But sometimes getting there isn't so easy. The NDP Leader was taken to task this week in a letter from Buzz Hargrove, head of the Canadian Auto Workers union, who said Mr. Layton's call for regulations that would require more environmentally friendly cars will kill jobs.
Mr. Layton and Mr. Hargrove talked about their differences over the phone this week.
"We're certainly happy to meet and work with him on this, but what's clear is we have to start to change our direction here," Mr. Layton said. "Otherwise our industry is going to start to get into deeper and deeper trouble and the efficient cars that people are looking for are going to be coming from China."
It's a line of debate the environmentalists find frustrating.
"He keeps talking a lot about green cars," Mr. Bennett said of Mr. Layton. "A really tough stand on cars, in the short term, is not relevant."
What matters, he said, is whether he is prepared to demand that the large emitters of greenhouse gases meet their Kyoto reduction targets over the next five years.
"The industry can afford to make this change," Mr. Bennett said. "They will be screaming blue murder. But they can afford it."