On social media the other day, Sandy Garossino — a retired Crown Counsel, national journalist and political pundit — told her readers on Twitter that this election, and for her every election going forward, would be about one thing …
In every election for the rest of my life I will
Vote climate
Vote climate
Vote climate— Sandy Garossino 🇨🇦🌻 (@Garossino) September 4, 2021
All elections determine the character of a country for the next four years.
And they have a lot to say about what the world will feel like, too. But this election may determine the flavour of the next four millennia — maybe the next 40. That’s because time is the one thing we can’t recover, and time is the one thing we’ve just about run out of in the climate fight.
Electing an Erin O’Toole-led Conservative Party would push Canada backwards fast, and would cost us dearly. Writes Max Fawcett in the National Observer …
The now-defunct Northern Gateway pipeline project is both a monument to the failed Harper-era policy of petro-nationalism and a testament to the power of Indigenous communities and those fighting for their rights. It’s emblematic of a past when concerns about climate change were far less important to the government of Canada than the interests of Alberta’s oil and gas sector.
Tankers could crash off B.C.’s west coast carrying Alberta crude
And for some strange reason, Erin O’Toole wants to bring it back from the dead — which would deal a fatal blow to any hope Canada has of reaching its net-zero emissions targets by 2050. This contradiction is at the heart of the climate plan O’Toole is trying to sell to Canadians. We are well past the point where we can delude ourselves into thinking we can have our cake and eat it, too, on climate change.
Fawcett goes on to quote Globe and Mail columnist Andrew Coyne, “The Conservatives don’t want a plan that works, still less one they might actually have to implement. They just want a plan they can wave around for a while, then discard.” If Canadian voters genuinely care about climate change, writes Fawcett, they’ll do themselves a favour and put O’Toole’s plan in the trash can — before he gets a chance to do it himself.
As respected Québec environmentalist and Liberal Party candidate in the riding of Laurier—Sainte-Marie, Steven Guilbeault, wrote recently …
“Erin O’Toole has made the Conservative party a home for dinosaurs. The following examples just barely scratch the surface of the climate change denial rampant in the Conservative Party of Canada.”
Here are a few examples of where Mr. Guilbeault’s concerns arise, that barely scratch the surface of the climate change denial rampant within the Conservative Party of Canada.
In Red Deer-Lacombe, Erin O’Toole’s Conservative Party candidate Blaine Calkins was caught spreading misinformation to children, saying “whether or not you think carbon dioxide is pollution or not is, I still think, a question.”
Professor accuses Alberta MP of spreading ‘climate misinformation’
In the North Okanagan-Shuswap, Erin O’Toole’s Conservative candidate is the enthusiastically endorsed Mel Arnold, who has questioned whether humans are the main cause of climate change — arguing that there is no scientific consensus.
North Okanagan-Shuswap Tory candidate questions science on climate change
In Cariboo-Prince George, O’Toole’s candidate Todd Doherty couldn’t bring himself to say that climate change was caused by human activity and claimed it was due to “adding more and more bodies to the room.”
There’s a video very much worth watching embedded in the tweet below.
It’s no news that human activity contributes to climate change. No wonder @AndrewScheer and @ToddDohertyMP don’t have a plan to fight climate change and think pollution should be free. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/DTDbrm6ipr
— Francis Drouin (@Francis_Drouin) November 14, 2018
In Renfrew—Nipissing—Pembroke, Cheryl Gallant has a long history of climate change denial, including having stated that: “alarmist claims about ‘man-made’ global warming have cost the Ontario government tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs.”
Ontario Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant writes over-the-top climate change rant
In Kelowna—Lake Country, Erin O’Toole’s Conservative Party candidate Tracy Gray skated and refused to give a straight answer when pushed on whether human activity is the cause of climate change, in an interview with CBC Daybreak Kelowna.
In Miramichi-Grand Lake, Erin O’Toole’s anti-choice Conservative Party candidate Jake Stewart has called environmental activists eco terrorists.
In Don Valley North, Erin O’Toole’s candidate Sabrina Zuniga has downplayed the environmental impacts of oil spills, claiming that “oil is natural … so spilling into the environment, the land will absorb it because that’s what oil is.”
Ontario Spadina-Fort York Tory candidate Sabrina Zuniga says oil is absorbed in soil, with absolutely no damage to the environment — because oil is a natural substance.
In Cloverdale—Langley City, favourite Erin O’Toole and Andrew Scheer candidate Tamara Jansen called reports of rising CO2 levels “scare mongering” and referred to scientists warning about climate change as pushing “climate change dogma.”
Cloverdale—Langley City Conservative Candidate Tamara Jansen Promoted The Idea That the Earth Was Created in 6 Days, Casting Doubt on Evolution and Climate Change, while others rally to express concern about Ms. Jansen’s extremist anti-choice views .
In Yorkton—Melville, Tory candidate Cathay Wagantall has suggested climate action is a conspiracy to hurt workers, while in Battlefords-Lloydminster, candidate Rosemarie Falk believes that the Tories need to think about: “Gen Z, which has grown up their whole lives being fed climate alarmism.”
In Québec, Trois-Rivieres, Conservative Party candidate Yves Levesque said the quiet part out loud, “as an elected official, as a person, that we’re going to destroy the planet, well we’re going to do it in a pragmatic way without lowering your purchasing power.”
In Shefford, Québec, Erin O’Toole’s preferred candidate, Céline Lalancette, denies the very existence of the human causes of climate change, telling the media: “humans are not responsible for climate change, it has never been proven” and “the universe will do what it has to do.”
Tory Céline Lalancette denies existence of human causes of climate change
Well, that’s it for VanRamblings for this Monday, September 6th, a hyperbole-free column (well, almost) on a few of the less savoury folks who comprise the Conservative Party of Canada candidate corral — not exactly the most progressive amalgam of candidates who you’d choose to cast a ballot for, or in this case, not cast a ballot for … but rally against, if you care at all about our world.
You do — and won’t vote Conservative in the 2021 Canadian federal election.
