It’s election time in Ontario. And nobody cares about the environment. Oh sure, what’s his name, the green party guy is expected to complain a lot but even his seat in the legislature isn’t guaranteed. Did you hear that one of Doug Ford’s goodies, promised last week, was a nickel off the provincial gas tax? Wow, the price is reaching $2 a litre and Ford wants us to vote for him for five cents.
The only environmental agreement between the opposition parties is that they will all put an end to Ford’s highway 413. They seem to agree that the highway is a threat to the environment and hardly needed. To lose all that good farm land and wetlands makes little sense—for a highway that is going no where.
And don’t bet on the federal government to save our world. The Trudeau government is still pouring billions into twinning that damn pipeline across the Rockies to carry Alberta tar sands bitumen to the Burrard Inlet for overseas shipment. And all this time, they have been pushing their environmental plans for 2030 and, I guess, keeping that pipeline secret from Mr. Trudeau’s environment minister Steven Guilbault.
Minister Guilbault is supposed to be some sort of climate activist. That seems like a lonely position these days as the federal conservatives keep coming on strong with no climate solutions in that party’s future. There are two greenies in Canada’s parliament. They do not seem to be doing any persuading.
Even Quebec is having an election this year and the ruling Coalition Avenir Québec is mainly ignoring the environment. The opposition in that province is scattered over a number of parties with slim hopes. The last time I checked, it looked like the Parti Québécois had the best environmental plan. And that party is certainly not going anywhere.
With everyone worrying if the conflict in Ukraine is going to lead to a world war, climate change has taken a back seat. Yet, every day we are hearing about climate change and extremes of weather. Mother Nature might not wait until we humans get involved in saving our planet.
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Copyright 2022 © Peter Lowry
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