Greens could vote against throne speech
OTTAWA — Capping a week of meetings with opposition leaders, Justin Trudeau met Friday with the Green party’s Elizabeth May, who says she will vote against the Liberal government in confidence motions unless the prime minister commits to measures that lower Canada’s carbon emissions sharply.
May emerged from the morning meeting saying she invoked the names of Trudeau’s three children in her push for a more aggressive approach to fighting climate change.
“I was very clear with him. This is about whether Ella Grace and Hadrien and Xavier are going to have a livable world by the time they’re adults. This is not impersonal, this is real, it’s personal and it’s a question of moral courage.”
They discussed a number of areas where the Green party and Liberals share common ground, and May said her caucus of three will be willing to vote for individual laws that are in keeping with Green priorities, including implementing a universal pharmacare program and harmonizing Canada’s laws with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
But when it comes to confidence motions like the upcoming throne speech or the federal budget, which the Liberal minority can pass only with support from other parties, May said she cannot vote for the Liberals if they keep their recent course.
“We could never vote confidence in a government that was pursuing pipelines and increasing greenhouse gases,” she said.
The only way to get Green support would be either to stop pursuing energy projects like the Alberta-B.C. Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and the liquefied natural gas project in northern B.C., or to commit to more aggressive carbon-emissions targets.
The Greens campaigned on lowering emissions 60% below 2005 levels to help hold a global temperature rise to 1.5 C, as recommended by the United Nations intergovernmental panel on climate change.
As part of the 2015 Paris agreement, Canada committed to reducing its annual greenhouse gas emissions to 30% below 2005 levels by 2030.