Conservatives already have a climate plan

In the last two federal elections, the Conservative Party of Canada issued the most comprehensive plan of any political party to protect, manage, and conserve Canada’s environment and natural resources. In 2019, the year I retired from political life, our comprehensive plan was a 60-page document that covered every aspect of environmental conservation. Meticulously referenced, our plan dealt with adapting to and mitigating climate change, implementing green technologies, protecting and conserving the natural environment, and showing international leadership on the issue of climate change. Plus, there was a section on protecting the way of life of Canada’s millions of hunters and anglers. As an aside, both the federal Liberals and NDP have shown nothing but contempt for Canada’s hunters and anglers, who are without a doubt our country’s most passionate conservationists, who freely give their time, money, and resources to conserve our fish and wildlife resources for the benefit of all Canadians. Indeed, when the Trudeau Liberals took office in 2015, they immediately cancelled the Recreational Fisheries Conservation Partnerships Program that, under the Harper Conservatives, had funded hundreds of locally managed fisheries conservation projects across Canada. But I digress. However, the “usual suspects” are always asking, “where is the Conservative climate plan?” or “How can Conservatives win without a climate plan?” The “usual suspects” in this case are the standard left-of-centre commentators who are usually urban-based with degrees in economics, political science, or communications. None that I can see has ever done ecological field work, farmed, or been employed in the natural resource industries. They really need to learn from the people who live on the land. The climate change commentariat has become a one-trick pony, and the message is: “a carbon tax equals climate change solutions equals environmental policy.” Really? Naturally, this group accepts that a carbon tax is the only answer to our nation's environmental issues. They try to place the burden of proof on us Conservatives, who are committed to “axing the tax,” when the burden of proof is on them. Instead, we should ask, “OK, carbon tax advocates. Prove to Canadians that a carbon tax will have any positive effect on our environment. Will a Canadian carbon tax recover salmon populations, reduce the eutrophication of Lake Erie, bring back our wetlands, restore the populations of woodland caribou, or ameliorate forest fires?” I could go on, but you get the picture. What a carbon tax does, however, is punish low-income and rural Canadians by placing many in “energy poverty,” a state that the carbon tax elites like Justin Trudeau are blissfully unaware. Recently, premiers from Atlantic Canada demanded an exemption from the carbon tax given the havoc it is wreaking on low-income East Coast residents. Indeed, Newfoundland Liberal MP Ken McDonald, in addressing Trudeau on the effects of the carbon tax, said: “I told him exactly as it is." "We are punishing the rural areas of our country and the most vulnerable people in our society,” McDonald said. He also courageously voted in support of a Conservative motion to exempt home-heating fuel from the federal carbon tax. Surprise, surprise—the motion was defeated by the Liberals. Out of frustration during the 2019 election, I emailed one of those “Conservatives have no climate plan” columnists and asked him point blank if he had even read our plan. To his credit, he replied and sheepishly acknowledged that he had not “really” read it. I guess a 60-page plan was too much for him. Our plan did break the cardinal rule of political campaigning—you need to keep things short, sweet, and simple—but we felt it was important to be as rigorous and comprehensive as possible. By focusing on adaptation, mitigation, and adopting a “technology not taxes” approach, Conservative policies would generate multiple environmental benefits for Canadians, such as better water management, biodiversity conservation, soil conservation, fish and wildlife enhancement, pollution control, and improved water quality, in addition to adaption to climate change. I am still waiting for a mathematical and rigorous analysis—free of virtue signalling—that proves the carbon tax that Trudeau has imposed will have distinct and measurable environmental benefits for Canadians. One more thing: could we stop using the unbelievably stupid phrase “carbon pollution?” From a chemistry text book regarding carbon’s properties: “The reason is carbon’s abilities to form stable bonds with many elements including itself. This property allows carbon to form a huge variety of very large and complex molecules. In fact, there are nearly 10 million carbon-based compounds in living things.” Certain carbon compounds are toxic like carbon monoxide, while others are the basis of life, such as carbohydrates. This is how inane environmental discourse has become. Robert Sopuck was the Conservative Member of Parliament for the Manitoba constituency of Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa from 2010-2019. The Hill Times

Conservatives already have a climate plan

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Conservatives already have a climate plan

The usual suspects are always asking where the right's climate plan is, and seem to think a carbon tax is the only answer to our environmental issues.

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