THE WEEK BEFORE Christmas 2009 was dominated on the international stage by the fractious Copenhagen conference on climate change and in Canada by the torch relay heralding the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Reflecting on these two phenomena got us to thinking not just about the challenged they present but also about the fact we’re in an era when there is a need for some forms of climate change.

As the Copenhagen conference so amply demonstrated, there’s a desperate need for change in political climate.

Whatever might be said about the scientific facts that have made the problem of global warming obvious to all but the Sarah Palins of the world who see it as a natural phenomenon unaffected by manmade greenhouse gases, no one is an admitted champion of pollution.

The problem is that in a world currently experiencing a global recession politicians are all too often willing and able to prefer vote-getting to problem-solving. Nowhere is this better demonstrated than in the seemingly endless debate in the United States over health-care reform, in which the critics ignore the plight of some 47 million without health insurance.

As for the Canadian political climate, there’s surely far too much factitiousness on Parliament Hill and at Queen’s Park at a time when we need more consensus.

At a time when our governments are appropriately running massive deficits, no one seems prepared to offer a credible means of returning to an era of budget-balancing, much less to the Keynesian concept of budget surpluses in good economic times.

Instead, last week’s news had both the Harper Conservatives at Ottawa and the McGuinty Liberals in Queen’s Park eying sell-offs of Crown corporations, the candidates including Atomic Energy of Canada’s nuclear power division and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario.

Although similar moves have been successful in past with such entities as Air Canada, Canadian National Railways and Petro- Canada, we’ve also witnessed some horror stories, the worst of all being the Harris government’s sale of Highway 407 to a consortium that has turned it into a cash cow charging outrageous tolls while exposing motorists to loss of their licences if they dispute a toll bill.

This holiday season, our greatest wish is for a climate of harmoniousness.

One of the true blessings of Christmas has been the gift of seasonal music, be it traditional carols, Bing Crosby’s White Christmas or the modern choral anthems.

As for the latter, our favourite is English composer John Rutter’s What Sweeter Music, inspired by lyrics written nearly 400 years ago by Robert Herrick, who wrote them as “A Christmas Carol, Sung to the King in the Presence at White-Hall,” to music that likely bore no resemblance to the Rutter masterpiece.

The words are mystical: What sweeter music can we bring Than a carol, for to sing The birth of this our heavenly King? Awake the voice! Awake the string!

Dark and dull night, fly hence away, And give the honour to this day That sees December turned to May.

Why does the chilling winter’s morn Smile, like a field beset with corn? Or smell like a meadow newly shorn Thus on the sudden? Come and see The cause, why things thus fragrant be:

’Tis he is born. whose quickening birth Gives life and lustre, public mirth, To heaven and the under-earth.

We see him come, and know him ours, Who, with his sunshine and his showers, Turns all the patient ground to flowers.

The darling of the world is come, And fit it is, we find a room To welcome him, to welcome him.

The nobler part of all the house here, is the heart. Which we will give him: and bequeath This holly, and this ivy wreath. To do him honour. who’s our King, And Lord of all this revelling.

May you, one and all, enjoy a Merry Christmas and a harmonious New Year!