There is a fatal flaw with the Kyoto Protocol as far as Canada is concerned.
The Kyoto targets for greenhouse gas emissions are fixed for each country. They do not change with population, but remain frozen at 1990 populations.
Kyoto targets mean that countries who make life so miserable for their citizens that they flee are rewarded; they keep their emigrants' quota. Kyoto targets mean that generous countries like Canada who give immigrants a chance for a new life are penalized; our quota per capita is reduced with every immigrant.
Canada has one of the fastest growing populations in the world due to immigration from other countries. Immigration to Canada over 1 January 1990 to 1 May 2007 was 3,173,179. This is 11.8% of the 1 January 1990 population of 26,913,212.
Kyoto targets demand that we reverse over a century of Canadian tradition, that we close our borders to further immigration, in fact that we should have done so in 1990. Given this, Canada should never have signed Kyoto. It was a betrayal of all those who have come from other countries and stayed to build the Canada of today.
There is only one answer that is true to Canadian values. Canada should leave Kyoto, adopt targets equivalent to Kyoto that permit people to move as they wish, and continue to welcome immigrants.
See also:
Canada vs. The Kyoto Protocol
Taking the Temperature of the Earth
John Sankey
other notes on community matters
The numbers above are scaled from Statistics Canada census data for 1991, 1996 and 2001, the data available at the time this page was written.