TRUDEAU’S PLANE ‘ HYPOCRISY’
ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS AND THE PERILS OF GREENFACE
As Kermit the Frog used to say, it’s not easy being green, especially if you’re a politician in the midst of an election campaign. The first thing to know is that every now and then, as a politician, you have to put on a little greenface.
For example, a member of Elizabeth May’s team of crack environmental strategists decided last month to photoshop a picture to make it appear as though the leader of the Green Party of Canada was holding a reusable coffee cup rather than a piece of future garbage. For good measure, a non- plastic straw was faked into the cup, signalling that May’s straw would not end up killing fish in the ocean.
The possibility that the manufacture of a metal straw might produce more carbon emissions than a plastic straw was apparently not part of the strategic calculation.
The political lesson from May is clear: putting on greenface is a tricky business that can get politicians into trouble, which is where Justin Trudeau and his Liberals find themselves today.
Under prodding from Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer during the French-language debate in Montreal Wednesday night, Trudeau admitted that the Liberal Party of Canada is fighting its 2019 federal election campaign with two jet aircraft at their disposal. At least one of the jets is emblazoned with giant letters that spell “TRUDEAU.” The second jet, according to the prime minister, is for “cargo.”
At this point Canadians learned that Scheer has a nifty (although likely scripted) sense of humour. With two jets, said Scheer, there’s “one for you and the media, and another for your costumes and canoes.”
Later, after the debate, Trudeau explained the essential elements of the dual- jet strategy. “We have a cargo plane on top of our regular plane, because it allows us to do more events in more parts of the country and meet more Canadians. It’s an important part of our national campaign to meet as many people as possible.”
For a party that has painted itself green and accused others of being indifferent to carbon emissions and pollution, Trudeau’s response came across as a touch hypocritical.
It also smacked of typical political self-importance.
Essentially, Trudeau was saying that as campaigning Liberals engaged in the vital national effort to re- elect a Liberal government, producing a few extra tonnes of jet- fuel carbon emissions along the way is, well, that’s the price that must be paid for the good of Canada and the betterment of all Canadians.
Just in case the Liberal emergency wasn’t enough, Trudeau reached for his makeup kit.
As if in acknowledgment that flying two planes — one for an entourage and another for “cargo”— might be seen as a little over- the- top from a climate emergency perspective, Trudeau said, first, that the party also had two carbon-spewing jets during the 2015 campaign — as if that alone justified two for the 2019 version.
Then Trudeau added that the Liberals had purchased “carbon offsets” that supposedly neutralized the carbon emissions produced by the jets. One of the jets, a 40- year- old Boeing 737200, is said to produce 50 per cent more carbon than more recent jets. There was also Twitter tracking of the high-carbon cargo jet, which has been flitting around the country like a deranged moth. One flight Thursday took it from Montreal’s Mirabel airport to Trudeau airport, about 35 kilometres.
Buying carbon offsets is itself a form of greenface that involves paying money to another entity that is presumably reducing its carbon emissions. News reports say the Liberals purchased their carbon credits from the Essex-windsor Regional Landfill Gas Capture and Destruction project for having reduced methane emissions.
As the Essex- Windsor landfill cuts carbon emissions, it can sell a credit at some market price. How much did the Liberal Party of Canada pay per tonne to offset the carbon emissions of its two- jet Liberal election strategy? The market for carbon credits is all over the price scale, ranging from a couple of dollars a tonne to $90 a tonne.
Time for full disclosure. If the Liberal Party of Canada wants to dress up in full green regalia, it should now strip down and reveal all, including description of the cargo in the cargo plane, total carbon emissions and the price paid for the carbon offsets.