Who is the new Minister of the Environment?

This winter, Canada's West Coast has been battered with storms, while the grass is still green in the East.

Vancouverites witnessed the visible effects of climate change in the city's beloved Stanley Park. Accordingly, Canada's new Minister of the Environment, John Baird, could not have picked a more evocative location to communicate that the extreme weather across Canada has been a "wake-up call."

John Baird inherited the position from Rona Ambrose during the cabinet shuffle that ushered in 2007. In his first press conference, Baird announced that the devastation in Stanley Park is "just an example of the kind of freak weather that we've had this year in parts of the country. This certainly is another reason that we've got to act on climate change."

Although this connection between extreme weather and climate change seems like a step toward understanding the issue, Baird did not start off his new term by unveiling a new strategy to fight climate change. Instead, he used Ambrose's infamous defence of blaming the Liberals for inaction, though he did say that alterations to the Conservative climate change plan were ahead.

But, the question remains: Who is John Baird? What qualifies him to fill, perhaps, the highest profile cabinet position, especially at a time when polls indicate that Canadians have prioritized the environment above health care as the number one issue for the first time in over a decade?

Baird is a star in Harper's caucus. He oversaw the Accountability Act as President of the Treasury Board. But will he be able to hold Canadian industry accountable for its emissions?

While the notoriously combatitive MP seems to take his job seriously, his critics are not convinced. The Western Standard even claims he has effectively raised the temperature since taking over the position. Meanwhile, environmentalists set out a list of demands for the new Minister and Andrew Coyne claims that Baird is only acting as Harper's 'neutralizer' on the issue.

Hopefully, in the weeks to follow, while the effects of climate change are still visible across the country, John Baird's stance on climate change will become clear.

Even more optimistically, perhaps he will take serious action toward recommitting to Kyoto emissions reduction targets, instead of taking the same embarrassingly lame posture that the ousted Ambrose displayed to the world as the Canadian representative at last year's UN Convention on Climate Change in Kenya.