Canadian climate change and American politics

I was reading a couple of articles about the effect the Republican Party with have on climate change legislation in the U.S. and I realized something: they are going to have a profound impact on Canadian climate legislation.

The reason for this is that the Conservative government has decided not to take a stand on climate change on its own. It has instead decided to "follow the lead of the American government". I'm not sure why this is the case. We don’t base our social or military programs around the American policies, why climate change?

Before I go any farther I will out myself: Politically I sit centre-left, so i fully support climate change legislation. Back to work, then.

The problems lies in that a large portion of the Republican Party are climate change deniers or, alternatively believe that we don’t contribute as much as most scientists (read: Ph.D. level climatologists) say we do. The recent mid-terms in the U.S. have left them with the ability to filibuster climate change legislation (or any legislation, for that matter) in the senate, and down-right kill it in the House of Representatives.

This leaves Canada in a position where we will be in one of two positions:
1) Having no meaningful climate change policy
2) Repealing any legislation (what little there is) already in place because we are "following the lead" of our southern neighbor.

I don’t think number two will actually happen (not very soon anyways), but it’s a very real possibility (in my mind) if conservatives in the states win many more seats (and the Canadian government sticks with its current policy). The Canadian Government needs to stand up and make a policy decision of its own. They shouldn’t look to others for policy decisions. They should do what democracy is supposed to have them do: Legislate according to the will of the electorate.

Feel free to disagree with me, but trolls and flamer posts will be deleted.

Edit: Here are two of the articles that got me thinking:

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/885484--alberta-s-dirty-oil-image-cleaned-by-u-s-midterms
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/24/tea-party-climate-change-deniers