With recent polls showing that the environment is now the number one concern of Canadians, Conservative Prime Minister Steven Harper has been changing his tune lately. In his recent budget speech, he vowed to tackle major industrial polluters and bring in regulations for vehicle emissions by 2011.

Forget for a moment that this is the Prime Minister that ignored Canada’s Kyoto commitments and don’t worry that 2011 is probably way too late, he is now saying that global warming is the “fundamental challenge of our time.”

It all sounds good in a speech, but the hypocrisy of his words is particularly galling. He drove to a noon time speech at the Chateau Laurier Hotel, a destination other Prime Ministers regularly walked too, and for the duration of his speech, his massive SUV sat idling outside spewing greenhouse gases. It is time that this Prime Minister started practicing what he preaches.