One of the neighbours on our court is a relative of the local Liberal candidate in our federal riding and has the lone lawn sign. She's an amiable and bright young woman and we chatted recently about the election. I mentioned that while Liberal leader and Prime Minister Mark Carney is an adult in the room addressing the threat from south of the border I'm disappointed by the cynical choice to remove carbon pricing. While the vague promise is that Canada will become carbon neutral this sounds like yet another attempt to kick the climate emergency can down the road rather than provide leadership for what is an existential threat. I was pleasantly surprised that she didn't disagree and she also sees this as a vital issue.
The truth is that neither the Conservatives nor the Liberals, the two parties that have a hope of getting elected have any substantive platform regarding climate. Once again the Green Party is trying to get our attention - "over here! over here!" -but who is listening? Green co-leaders Elizabeth and Jonathan Pedneault are both skilled at speaking to the issues but the party has fallen on hard times since May's first departure from the role.
Three days ago
I listened to street interviews with several well-spoken young adults for whom the environment is a priority and heard their disappointment that this has all but disappeared from the national agenda during this election.
Interesting that when I led a recent study group on Laudato Si: On Care for our Common Home, the excellent encyclical from Pope Francis, the group of 10 seniors who participated all expressed similar concerns. While the young adults were considering their futures the oldy but goodys were thinking of the grandchildren. I imagine that some of the interviewees were part of the Fridays for Future movement started by Greta Thunberg. You might recall that the largest rally in the world was in Montreal with about half a million participants.
I don't know if much will change during the last few weeks of the election campaign but I pray that it will.
2 comments:
Strange times. In the past, climate change was one of the top issues, and politicians likely felt they could score points by addressing what they would do to combat the crisis.
Now, thanks to the unhinged maniac south of the border, it feels like politicians don't want to give it any air time whatsoever - instead trying to put their focus on how they will be better than their opponents in dealing with Trump.
Right now, it's about the economy and a looming recession. I get it - this is serious stuff going on and it needs wise and experienced leadership(okay, so that rules out Poilievre) to tackle it. But we can't ignore what the scientists are telling us and deal with it later.
Agreed Roger, on all points. We need the regular reminder that the Greek word oikos gives us the eco prefix for both ecology and economy. While there is a sense of urgency about the latter at the moment, if we don't take care of our planetary home we're cooked -- literally.
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