The home of the Spirit Bear, which already has more land conservation area than any other Canadian province, was leading the way in protecting the atmosphere.

Then, U.S. progress on federal climate policy skidded to a halt. And the WCI began to falter. Six states withdrew last November, leaving just California and four Canadian provinces still participating. With its general election one year away, the government of British Columbia, headed by the Liberal Party (known to be more conservative than its rival, the New Democratic Party), is now questioning the future of the climate initiatives it enacted.

"I think it is safe to say that we expected more jurisdictions to be coming up and joining us in this kind of public