Once again, the Trudeau government’s larger, loftier climate ambitions seem to vanish every time a pipeline company, or a western premier, declares that the sky is falling. It never falls.
If Question Period remains impervious to reform, it needs to be marginalized—fewer sessions, selected topics, no longer televised?—and replaced by more rigorous committee hearings with rotating casts of MPs.
Erin O’Toole currently has a foot in two camps—those who want a modern, centrist party that takes climate change, social justice and the role of government seriously, or, the moral purists.
The prime minister has to know that any detailed, well-funded federal 'intrusion' on provincial turf, aimed at improving long-term care, could be wildly applauded by the public.
'Shaming and blaming people does not prevent the spread of COVID. It creates stigma. It drives people underground,' says Nova Scotia's chief medical officer of health, and ain't that the truth.
There is appropriate fodder for opposition critics, but instead they waste hours demanding timelines when everything is in flux, greeting every federal announcement with the same level of hostility and volume.
The clearest culprit in the current mess is an ideology—the neoliberal preference for small government, the stubborn and wrong-headed belief that private sector is always more efficient, a distrust of science.
The Trudeau government has shown it can move quickly, and mostly effectively, when faced with a health crisis. Wasn’t climate change supposed to be a crisis, too?
Taxing the rich sounds good in a campaign ad, but making it work requires careful design, clever marketing, and enduring commitment. These are not qualities associated with political leaders of any persuasion.
Why waste any more time and emotional energy blaming anyone, or everyone, when we need governments, political leaders, school boards, and public health agencies to start fixing what went wrong?
Some eternal verities are not so eternal after all—and that includes the present-day Conservative Party as a dominant force in federal politics. Increasingly, it speaks for a disappearing Canada.
It is crucial, however, that everyone shares equally the sacrifices and rewards that lie ahead. That will require uncommonly wise political leadership.
It may be too much to ask that our prime minister, premiers and opposition leaders not revert to familiar behaviours, to the old struggle for partisan advantage, and forget too soon the tragedy that unfolded on their wat
When it comes to when and how fast we should resume quasi-normal life as pandemic infection rates slow, the answer probably depends on how old you are, how broke you are, and where you live. Or so you would think.
Everyone needs to be rowing in the same direction. Well-paid and well-insulated critics, sniping from the sidelines, need to put their outrage in park.
A government that takes the climate crisis seriously, would manage down existing projects over coming years and pour all its energy, imagination and money into encouraging alternative enterprises.
It is early days, there may be other candidates stepping up, but at the moment it looks as if that prize will go to yet another ambitious, confident and aggressive white male politician straight from central casting.
John Wilkinson is well-versed on environmental issues and said to be a good listener. But his initial comments do not signal any urgent resolve to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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