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Because there’s only so much progressive angst a person can take in a lifetime, I’ve largely stopped listening to CBC Radio. But I did happen to hear Paul Kennedy of CBC’s flagship “Ideas” program the other night, tossing up softballs to Naomi Klein, whom he interviewed between audio clips of her public lecture for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in Winnipeg in April. “Do you regret that (you came relatively late to climate change as an issue)? Do you wish you were in at the beginning?” “When you think of the Paris (climate change) conference now, what do you think, what goes through your mind?” “What do you think about green technology?” “What keeps you up at night?”

I wonder if “Ideas” has ever linked up with a public lecture by an internationally known conservative thinker — organized, say, by the Fraser Institute — and between clips from his or her talk lovingly queried the featured speaker? I’m guessing not.

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“Ideas” called this episode “Taking the Leap” because it focused in large part on the Leap Manifesto, which calls for the abandonment of fossil fuels by mid-century and which Klein was instrumental in putting together. (She urges her audience to read it: “It’s only 1,400 words,” which if you’re used to 140 characters may well be a challenge. The Communist Manifesto, all credit to Karl Marx, was a meaty 12,200 words.)