Liberals facing ''green shift' branding fracas.

Green politics seems often to be about branding and not much about substance or what is behind the brand name. The Liberal party is being re-branded. The new website should actually be sitting_ononeshands.com to portray the reality of the Liberal party as an opposition party rather than the inappropriate rhetoric about a green shift. When in power the Liberals failed miserably to do much of anything towards meeting Kyoto targets.
The new Liberal rhetoric about going green will distract attention from other issues such as our mission in Afghanistan, the new immigration regulations that the Liberals helped pass and on and on.
Maybe the Liberals will try to file a countersuit to collect money for the extra hits that the firm''s website will receive!

Liberals facing 'green shift' branding fracas
Toronto firm challenges Dion on name
BILL CURRY
With a report from The Canadian Press
June 24, 2008
OTTAWA -- Stéphane Dion's cross-country tour promoting his "green shift" hit a potentially embarrassing pothole yesterday as a Toronto environmentalist took legal action over what she describes as "blatantly unethical" trademark infringement.
A firm already operating as Green Shift sent a cease and desist letter yesterday afternoon to the Liberal Party and the company is considering whether to sue for damages.
Jennifer Wright, who has been running the small but successful environmental consulting company for nearly 10 years, said she was heading out to a Dave Matthews concert last week when a call came in from the House of Commons.
She grabbed the phone because her company has a contract with the Parliament Hill cafeterias, providing them with products such as recycled coffee cups.

Instead, Ms. Wright said the cheery caller was Katie Telford, the deputy chief of staff to Mr. Dion, the Liberal Leader, informing her that the Liberals were about to launch their own "green shift" plan.
Ms. Wright recalls being told by the senior Liberal aide: "I just want to let you know that you're going to be getting a lot of hits on the website."
Ms. Wright said she warned Ms. Telford the Liberals could expect a lawsuit if they went ahead and used the name.
"I said, more importantly, why would you do that to a nice, friendly, environmental organization?" Ms. Wright said.
There were no apologies from Liberals yesterday, who noted the party had secured the rights to the domain name www.thegreenshift.ca: a slick-looking website that allows visitors to calculate how Mr. Dion's plan to reduce greenhouse gases will affect their family finances. Ms. Wright's website is http://www.greenshift.ca.
"What they're doing is so blatantly unethical," Ms. Wright said.
It is not the first time that a political party has run into such a problem in a bid to rebrand its environmental policies.
Environment Minister John Baird issued an apology in April of 2007 after Prime Minister Stephen Harper launched a $1.5-billion program called Canada ecoTrust even though a B.C. firm was already operating under the name EcoTrust Canada. The government pledged not to use the name any more.
Conservatives continued to reject Mr. Dion's call for a summer debate on climate-change policy yesterday, but Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and NDP Leader Jack Layton said they are eager to debate Mr. Dion all summer. Mr. Dion's spokesman, Mark Dunn, said Mr. Dion won't be debating the NDP and Greens.
"The invite is to the PM and the PM alone," he wrote in an e-mail.
The first national poll taken since Mr. Dion unveiled the proposal last Thursday found most Canadians did not know enough yet to form an opinion. But once the policy was explained to respondents, the Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey found, close to half - 47 per cent - liked the idea, while 39 per cent said they were opposed