Climate plan aimed at success

Tories promote affordability over environment

Andrew Scheer quit Montreal under cover of darkness, just hours before hundreds of thousands of mainly young Canadians took to the streets to protest climate inaction.

Justin Trudeau, who is trying to rebuild his tattered credibility post-blackface with the young voters he needs to win, flew into town and may have wished he hadn’t.

He nearly got egged by one protester, was heckled by others, with chants of, “What about the pipeline” and received a public scolding from young Swedish activist, Greta Thunberg, for not doing enough on climate change.

Having Trudeau on the march was “like having an employer on the picket line” tweeted one environmentalist.

Scheer saved himself all of those headaches by heading to Vancouver.

In truth, he may have had no choice. Such is the anger brewing over the Conservative party’s environmental non-plan, his RCMP protective detail would probably have vetoed his participation.

But it was a strange decision, to say the least, to schedule an announcement to build more bridges, roads and tunnels on the same day as mass climate change protests across the country.

Scheer positioned the new infrastructure announcement as one that will benefit the environment.

“We will take real concrete action that will lower emissions,” he said, suggesting that fewer cars idling will reduce pollution.

That flies in the face of all the evidence on induced demand — that if you build more roads and bridges, more drivers will come. But is instructive of Scheer’s attitude to the issue of climate change and the way he talks about it to his particular audience.

The Conservative leader is a careful man who is relaying a message that has been carefully calibrated to appeal to the kinds of people the Conservatives believe will vote for them. Those voters may care about the environment but they were not marching in the streets on Friday. And while they may care, it is probably not their No. 1 issue. Hence the Conservatives focus on the issue of affordability that likely is front of mind. When Scheer and his party talk about the environment, they tend to talk through that prism — public transit, home renovations and technology not taxes.

People fixated on climate change may find that objectionable, but those people constitute just one quarter of the electorate and, almost by definition, they are not voting Conservative.

Scheer pays lip-service to taking action. “I think it is important not to leave our children an economic or environmental deficit,” he said.

But, rather than dwelling on what he might do in office, Scheer is more keen to talk about his opponent. “I thought it was ironic that Justin Trudeau was protesting his own government’s record on the environment,” he said at his announcement at the last stop on Vancouver’s SkyTrain in Coquitlam.

The Conservatives have done their best to sully Trudeau’s reputation by running ads that have only a passing acquaintance with the facts. One ad says that $2 a litre gas is “just around the corner” thanks to increases to the Liberal carbon tax that will see prices spike by 31¢. In fact, the sourcing for those claims — the Parliamentary Budget Officer — sees increases of that magnitude happening a decade from now, and only if the carbon tax is doubled.

It is a misleading and inglorious way to campaign but it is the product of a sophisticated reading of the Canadian electorate that concludes a majority of people may say they want to stop global warming but they are not prepared to do much about it, far less pay for it. An Ipsos Canada poll earlier this week suggested 46 per cent of Canadians were not prepared to pay a penny, while a further 22 per cent would only pay up to $100.

Scheer is an upgrade from Conservatives of yesteryear, who publicly decried the green movement as radical ideologues. “I believe Canadians want government to take the environment seriously. That’s why we have a real plan,” he said.

THEY BELIEVE THAT THEY CAN WIN GOVERNMENT BY CAMPAIGNING ON POCKETBOOK ISSUES.

He acknowledges global warming as a climactic and political phenomenon.

But it is not paramount for Conservatives — it is not even one of their prevailing considerations. They believe that they can win government by campaigning on pocketbook issues and appealing to the people battling to make ends meet.

That appears to mean turning a blind eye to the tragedy of the commons unfolding before our eyes.

Opponents will call that a cynical, short-sighted and obscene strategy. But it may prove to be a successful one.