Canada has once again tarnished its international reputation in blocking the listing of asbestos as a hazardous chemical at an international summit in Geneva this week. Asbestos was to be added to the Rotterdam Convention, which would simply force exporter countries to warn buyers of the potential health hazards. Under the twisted logic of the Harper regime, money (the $90 million a year asbestos brings in to Canada) has no health hazards to anyone and should be defended.

Canada was content to sit back and let other exporter countries like Russia do the heavy lifting for them. But when one of the other major exporters, India, agreed to list asbestos as a hazardous chemical, most of the other exporter countries jumped on board, except for Canada.

This plays into a thought I’ve had since the last election. People elected the Conservatives because they seemed like the only centrist option left after the decimation of the Liberal party by both internal forces and expensive, taxpayer-funded attack ads from the Tories that started airing way before election writs were dropped. If this is why you voted Conservative, weigh their actions over the next few years against this question: is this the act of a centrist party?

Does a centrist party stand up as the sole champion of asbestos in an international forum, where we are sure to lose face as a result? No. Keep asking that question, and you’ll have the answers you need. Hopefully the NDP can position itself to be the centrist party of choice over the next few years. Until then, I won’t be travelling with a Canadian flag on my backpack.