I’m one of many, many Canadians who is tired of hearing this rhetoric from the Canadian government about how they won’t sign on to any climate treaty without the US doing the same. Canada could play a leading role in this fight and we’re looked at around the world right now as a country that’s not only not doing enough but is hindering the possibility of any significant step beyond Kyoto.

It’s not an accident that Al Gore chose to use hockey as a metaphor today in his speech at the meetings in Bali:

But at that key moment of his speech, Gore talked about hockey, referred to two of the greatest Canadian players ever to play the game and threw a bodycheck at the stance Canada has taken at the UN summit.

Gore heaped scorn on the idea that the world can only have a climate treaty if the United States signs on – the exact position articulated by Canada.

That’s when he used the example of Bobby Hull and Wayne Gretzky. It’s a reference that may have been lost on delegates from such non-hockey-playing countries as Tuvalu, Togo and Trinidad – but not Canadians.

Gore said the world has two choices: feel anger at the United States or move ahead knowing that it will almost surely follow.

“One of the most famous ice-hockey players in history was asked the secret of why he was so good,” Gore said. “He was the best passer in the history of the game, Bobby Hull. Others might disagree (and say) Wayne Gretzky.

“And he said in response to the question: ‘I don’t pass the puck to where they are – I pass the puck to where they’re going to be’.”

“Over the next two years, the United States is going to be somewhere it is not now. You must anticipate that.”

As much as I admire Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama, one can’t help but hear Al Gore and wish he were running again. One can only imagine how different this country would have been with him at the helm. On the other hand, what a gift to the world his defeat was in that it gave him time to devote himself solely to making the world think more about the threat of global warming.