Did you know that the Queen of England is still the Queen of Canada? And did you know that until 1982, the Queen had to sign off on all amendments to the Canadian constitution (and, ironically, had to sign off on that self-same amendment that changed the law)?  It’s true!  The British, tired of just meddling in politics involving moose and hockey, are now sticking their noses back into American affairs, obviously forgetting the lessons taught by the War of 1812.  Green Futures, a British sustainability magazine, profiles each of the three presidential candidates’ (apparently there’s an election soon?) positions on climate change and the environment.   The good news, according to the article, is that Clinton, McCain and Obama all recognize the importance of placing emphasis on environmental problems and enacting solutions quickly.

The magazine points out that, “The party conventions will set up the greenest presidential election in US history this November, with both parties’ standard-bearers holding legitimate claims to the mantle of leadership in tackling climate change.”  Because the environment has become such a concern to many Americans, politicians have no choice but to address the issue.   In fact, through all the bickering and arguing, at least one expert thinks that regardless of who wins, a lot of the same policy will be put into place.

“The reality is that the three candidates’ positions are very close to one another,” says Eileen Claussen, director of the Pew Centre on Global Climate Change. “They all believe the US must act and they all favour a cap-and-trade system. Whoever is president will make this a priority very early on in their administration and put their party in Congress on to it. That means that if we don’t get climate change legislation this year, we will certainly get it in 2009.” All three candidates support a global climate agreement, she added, which bodes well for the post Kyoto negotiations, although, cautions Claussen: “I don’t think any of them have given a lot of thought about how to do it.”

and read the rest of the article to get a full picture of where each candidate stands on green issues (written by an American, for the record), as I’m pretty sure it behooves all of us to make an informed decision this November.   Though I did just get $600 in my bank account this week thanks to our good friend George W.  Can we just vote for him again?  That’s working well, isn’t it?