If voters decide to get serious about climate change, May might get a late wedding present in October

HALIFAX—Could a storybook wedding turn into a Cinderella political tale in 2019 for the Green Party of Canada? Don’t bet against it. Sitting in Christ Church Cathedral, in the heart of downtown Victoria, it was easy to picture how it might happen. Despite the rain, every pew in the cavernous church, where Winston Churchill personally laid a stone in the North Tower in 1929, was filled. The palpable joy in the place was not restricted to the faces of Elizabeth May and John Kidder, the celebrants of the hour. The Green Party leader with the 100-watt smile, and the hops farmer from central casting in a cream, linen suit, had the congregation abuzz. The couple zapped each other with eye-cupids like giddy teenagers. Jody Wilson-Raybould was smiling so broadly, one might have thought that she was the one getting married. My seat-mate in pew two was David Suzuki. Gazing at the newlyweds, he observed that “This might be the country’s new power couple.” How I love wishful thinkers. Progressive Conservative Leader Dennis King won a minority government in Prince Edward Island on April 23, 2019, the first Progressive Conservative government win since Pat Binns won in 1996. Screen capture image courtesy CityNews Toronto Far away, on the other coast, on an island very different from the one where May and Kidder were married, another fairy tale was about to play out, a fairy tale of politics. The day after May’s “Great Big Fat Green Wedding," Prince Edward Island elected a Conservative minority government. The history-making event wasn’t that yet another Conservative premier had been elected in Canada, though that is surely a bad sign for Justin Trudeau and the Liberals heading into a federal election. It was the nature of the official opposition: for the first time ever, it was Green. For May, it had to be a triumphant moment. Up until very recently, she has been the Green Party in Canada. Not an easy gig. As a federal candidate, May has lost three times and won three times. From her first unsuccessful run at politics as an Independent, to her more recent crushing victories as the MP for Saanich-Gulf Islands, she has fought for every centimetre of political territory along the way. Despite her true grit, May has never had an elected colleague beside her since she arrived in the House of Commons in 2011. Despite that, despite often being excluded from nationally televised leaders’ debates, the limited number of questions she can ask in Parliament and at committees, and inadequate budgets, May has soldiered on. But slowly, very slowly, after 13 years of leading a party of one in Ottawa, the tide has begun to turn. The Greens are popping up like crocuses in provincial legislatures. The party has elected members in British Columbia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. Now the Greens are the government-in-waiting in Canada’s smallest province. Is this a portent of good things in store for May in the federal election—a kind of Liz of Green Gables moment? That is yet to be decided, but one thing is certain. All the mainstream parties have fumbled the ball on climate change and opened the door for the Greens. Despite great expectations, the Trudeau government has largely followed the same path on the environment and climate change as other Liberal governments—rhetoric without results. Green Party Leader Elizabeth May was a happy bride, picture on Earth Day, on April 22, 2019. Screen capture image courtesy CTV News Vancouver Island Regardless of the PR spin, and apart from putting a price on carbon pollution 25 years after Sweden, this is what the Trudeau Liberals stand for: Stephen Harper’s emission targets; expansion of the tar sands; burdening taxpayers with a decrepit pipeline (and getting fleeced in the process by a Texas company); dishing out billions in subsidies to the oil and gas sector; pretending that LNG is not a fossil fuel; and permitting exploratory oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. If, as the BBC reports, Canada’s North is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet, the political hot air from the Liberals might be part of the problem. The government has recently taken to claiming that Canada leads the world in the battle against climate change. In fact, we are laggards who will not meet the commitments made in Paris under current policies. That said, the Tories are even worse. Andrew Scheer is dead on arrival with his environmental policy. On this file, the Conservative Party remains in the Pleistocene Age. Though the Cons have a new leader, its plan is still based on the corporate myopia of Stephen Harper: economy first, environment an afterthought. Elizabeth May, pictured March 6, 2019, on the Hill. The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade Has Harper learned anything since his government set a Guinness Book of Records for most Fossil Head Awards in a G-7 nation? Apparently not. The former PM recently said that people were “losing faith” in Canada. He was speaking at a hush-hush meeting of business dudes in London. The former PM was not referring to regular people “losing faith” in Canada. He was referring to the people he cares about; foreign investors and oil and gas executives. And Harper was talking about the only subject that really interested him when he was Big Banana on the federal scene; business, and in particular, the energy sector. That’s the sector that Harper failed to regulate after nearly ten years in office, even though the world’s scientists have reported that fossil fuels are leading the planet towards the brink. Think about it this way: if you care about the planet, these guys are not for you. As for the party of Jack Layton, Jagmeet Singh has been dealt a tough hand by his NDP brethren on climate change policy. In Alberta, Rachel Notley was as bad as new premier Jason Kenney, an aggressive, inflexible cheerleader for the oil and gas sector. Shutting coal plants isn’t much of an accomplishment if you replace them with fracked natural gas. Prince Edward Island Green Party Leader Peter Bevan-Baker won official opposition status for his party last Tuesday. Screen capture image courtesy CityNews Toronto And in British Columbia, NDP Premier Colin Horgan has alienated environmentalists with approvals for the controversial Site C Dam, and the province’s $40-billion deal with LNG Canada for a massive project at Kitimat. The NDP government used a cabinet order to bypass debate in the provincial legislature, and also exempted LNG Canada from paying sales tax during the construction phase of the project. PM Justin Trudeau attended the event, and praised the deal as the biggest investment ever in Canada, and—here’s the baloney sandwich, consistent with the Paris climate agreement. Provincial Green Party leader Andrew Weaver boycotted the affair, which was billed as being as momentous as the “moon landing.” Weaver blasted the NDP as world-class hypocrites for saying one thing about LNG while in opposition, and turning into former premier Christy Clark in power. Minus the oily, greasy, and gassy shenanigans of politicians, here is the adult message. According to the most recent report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, world leaders have perhaps as little as 12 years to fix carbon pollution. The National Observer is now reporting that scientists have learned that four major oil sands facilities in Northern Alberta are emitting far more pollution than they have admitted to—a whopping 64 per cent more. As usual, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna has been quick to discount the gravity of these findings as only being “one report.” The only person who has never discounted the ticking time bomb of climate change, and who continues to be the class of environmentalists sitting in the House of Commons, is Elizabeth May. She’s got the battle scars to prove it. If Canadian voters decide that it’s time to get serious about the planet, this newlywed might be getting a late wedding present come October. Michael Harris is an award-winning author and journalist. The Hill Times

If voters decide to get serious about climate change, May might get a late wedding present in October

The only person who has never discounted the ticking time bomb of climate change, and who continues to be the class of environmentalists sitting in the House of Commons, is Elizabeth May. She’s got the battle scars to prove it.

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If voters decide to get serious about climate change, May might get a late wedding present in October

The only person who has never discounted the ticking time bomb of climate change, and who continues to be the class of environmentalists sitting in the House of Commons, is Elizabeth May. She’s got the battle scars to prove it.

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