Long before the collapse of the world's economy... well prior to the last election... and far in advance of the current government coming to power, there was one issue that kept making forays to the front of Canadian policy discussions. Climate Change has waxed and waned as a priority in Ottawa, but it has never gone away.

Much of that discussion revolves around the conundrum of greenhouse gases and how to get humanity to stop emitting so many of them.

Here in Canada, the argument pits Ottawa against the most populous provinces in the country. The spat generally gets a full public viewing at the annual Council of the Federation meeting. That's the jaw-fest that brings provincial and territorial leaders together every year.

In 2008, the meeting was held in Quebec City -- and at that meeting, much of the talk was about something called the Western Climate Initiative, or WCI. It's an agreement that began in a number of western states south of the border, but soon gained resonance in parts of Canada too.

To kick off our retrospective of the climate question in Canada, here is Graham Saul, the executive director of Climate Action Network Canada, describing the WCI to us in 2008: