CVBC: Why go into politics?

DA: The basic reason it's where you can make an impact. One example is Pacific Rim National Park. As it turned out, even as a backbencher I could go to the Minister responsible and to the Prime Minister, Mr. Trudeau, and say, "you really must pay attention to this." I took out Mr. Chretien, and Mr. Trudeau on a later visit and ultimately got the park. It wasn't that simple, there were many other people involved, but the point being that I could do in elected life what I couldn't do in private life. There are things you can do in politics that you'd have next to no chance doing in private life, and that's particularly true for the environment.

Another example is ratifying Kyoto. You had to be in the system to do it. You had to be there within cabinet working it hard. Obviously you couldn't have done it without public support, but you also have the opportunity of going out and creating public support. So, it gives you opportunities. That's the basic advantage of being in politics.

CVBC: What would you say to people who find politics distasteful?

DA: Well I would expect being a surgeon and taking a liver apart when a person has cancer would be very distasteful too. It would be very unpleasant delving into the human body. But it doesn't mean that it doesn't need doing. Those who wish to live in a world of perfection and neatness are not going to get things done. So, to them I'd say that it's the price you have to pay.

CVBC: Tell us a little about the balancing act of being an elected official.

DA: There's an old story about timing being everything. Take a traffic light - step off the sidewalk at the wrong time and you'll be dead. You wait till the light is green and wait for the traffic to be stopped before you try to cross the road, and that's true with politics. Some issues cannot be won at certain times. So you have to be strategic. You have to put things in a third dimension. You have to add the element of time.

You have a margin, sometimes wider, sometimes narrower to influence the balance. You need to have your finger on that balance. And, even if you may not win the total objective, you may win a substantial amount more than if you would if you were not in there.

CVBC: How can conservationists work better with politicians?

DA: One of the challenges with environmental activists is a certain determination to be on the high ground and not recognizing that it's not just expressing the virtuous words - it's actually getting out there and doing something to persuade people. That's one of the great frustrations of everyone who works in the environmental area. It doesn't help a lot to have a meeting where 6 or 10 people express noble sentiments and it goes no further than that. What you want to do is to actually have people do something in terms of persuading others.

I've found in politics the environmental issues tend to be very up and down compared to some of the economic issues. There's always the Chamber of Commerce always working on x, y, z. There's always economic interests pushing, pushing, pushing. It's like a ratchet in that you never seem to be able to go back once you've lost - like in BC now we're discovering how hard it is to get back allocated timber licenses. And environmentalists tend to rally only on certain issues but not to have that consistent pressure.

CVBC: Are there any tactical lessons conservationists need to learn to deal with the political system?

DA: In fact, the political system in Canada is run by a tiny fraction of the population, mainly in political parties. We want to make sure that in every political party there's a major environmental constituency. I think that sometimes that's not encouraged enough.

Now, a lot of people would say that they wouldn't dream of going to something like a nominating meeting and committing their soul to a political party. But, they may have lost an opportunity to have a great environmental critic who could be the yeast in the flour within a party.

If just a few more environmentalists turn up in places like nomination battles, a big impact can be had.

CVBC: What do you see as the key environmental issues of the next decade?

DA: Well, you can take an issue like water and say that it's the biggest issue to deal with, but if you don't deal with climate change then it doesn't matter what we do on water.

So, the overwhelming issue is climate change and that's the one that's going to affect so many other issues. Take endangered species - under a changing climate ¼ of all species on the planet will be gone by the end of the century. We can focus on one species at a time, but the ground is shifting underneath us.