In a victorious 152 - 115 vote, the opposition Liberal, Bloc and NDP embarrassed the governing Conservatives by passing a bill that would oblige the government to respect its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol.

The bill's stated purpose is "to ensure that Canada takes effective and timely action to meet its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol and help address the problem of climate change."

Conservative MPs found themselves in the awkward position of voting against a bill which calls on them to uphold a treaty which they claim to support.

The bill now goes to the Commons environment committee for study, before returning for a third reading before Parliament.

Further revealing the Conservatives true intentions, their own much flaunted "Made in Canada" plan has now been downgraded to an approach. "The details of the plan — sorry, I shouldn't say plan, the approach — will be coming some time shortly," said Mark Cooper, senior official in the office of Environment Minister Rona Ambrose.

After months of promising a comprehensive ``Made-in-Canada" environment plan, word from the federal Conservative government is there won't be a formal plan after all.

Since being elected last winter, the Conservatives have deferred most questions about environmental issues by referring to the coming plan.

If there is anyone remaining who is standing up for the Conservative's intentions towards the environment, they're either illiterate or should be sharing whatever they're smoking (oops, scratch that thought).

This of course occurs in the lead up to Rona Ambrose's return to Ottawa, after a week spent seeking asylum with the Alberta oil industry during the release of the Auditor General's scathing call to action on global warming.

Sounds like a government on the run to me. We'll find out tomorrow when Rona Ambrose is expected to address the Auditor General's report from Ottawa.