With smog from out-of-control forest fires on the west coast stretching over North America, blistering heat in the south west, Prairies without rain and tornados in Ontario, we need politicians who know something about Mother Nature. Yet who is to help when the liberals are acting as hypocrites, the conservatives are skeptical, the new democrats have no plan and the Greens are fighting with their new leader?
Many Canadians are concerned that Justin Trudeau’s liberals are spending billions twinning the Trans Mountain pipeline to pump Alberta tar sands bitumen to Burrard Inlet in Vancouver. The liberals can hardly be concerned about the environment when they want to ship the world’s most polluting bitumen to other countries, so that someone else can refine it.
The pro-pipelines conservatives are at least honest in admitting they don’t know what to do about pollution. Their problem is in telling eastern voters they are concerned while assuring westerners that they will support their dirty coal and even worse bitumen extraction from the tar sands.
The new democrats had the Leap Manifesto giving them some impetus on an environmental plan for a few years, but this was allowed to die from a lack of support and the problems of the pandemic.
And that leaves Canadians with a Green Party in disarray. With polls showing the Greens with the same low numbers as before the selection of a new leader, it leaves supporters wondering why they care. Their new leader is busy trying to win a seat in parliament in a rock-solid liberal riding in Toronto—the heart and soul of liberalism in Canada.
And what is really frustrating for Canada’s Green supporters is that the arguments that envelope their party have nothing to do with the party’s environmental concerns. Why would a party that has never had clear policies on international affairs waste the time of a leader over the party’s stance on the problems in the Middle East? We have problems here in Canada.
It would be smart for Canadian Greens to look at this and realize how far they have to go. To do it, they need to stop the infighting and get to work.
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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry
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