‘Stop the hypocrisy’ on environment: Skinner
‘Price on pollution’ can curb climate change, Monsef says, while Shaw says NDP has the ‘boldest’ climate plan as candidates debate environment issues at Trent University
Conservative candidate Michael Skinner said it’s time for elected leaders to “stop the hypocrisy” when it comes to environmentalism — whether it’s Peterborough city council declaring a climate emergency the day after an air show or Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau using two planes to criss-cross Canada on his election campaign.
“We have to ensure we’re not hypocrites, and we’re doing what we’re saying,” Skinner told a packed lecture hall at Trent University on Thursday evening.
But Peterborough-Kawartha Liberal incumbent Maryam Monsef said her party’s been helping curb climate change by “putting a price on pollution,” phasing out single-use plastics and spending money on public transit, for instance.
She said she wants to keep building on that work.
“If the Conservatives win, I can assure you we’re going to move backward instead of moving forward,” she said.
The all-candidates’ debate on the environment on Thursday evening was attended by roughly 300 people: Stohn Hall in the Students’ Centre was filled to its capacity of 200 and about 100 more people watched the debate via livestream in a classroom elsewhere in the building.
The event was organized by the Trent Central Students’ Association in partnership with 13 partners such as Trent’s School of the Environment, For Our Grandchildren and GreenUp.
It was part of a project called 100 Debates for the Environment, an effort to encourage discussion of the environment from candidates in 100 locations across Canada.
Monsef and Skinner were joined on Thursday evening by the NDP’s Candace Shaw, the Green party candidate Andrew MacGregor and People’s Party of Canada candidate Alexander Murphy .
Shaw said the NDP has “the boldest and best of the climate plans,” which include keeping the carbon tax, electrifying public transit by 2030 and making transit free for riders.
MacGregor said nobody takes climate change more seriously — or has been talking about it longer — than the Green party.
The Greens would ban fracking, stop oil imports and declare a nationwide climate emergency, he said.
Within a decade the Greens would “leave oil in the ground” in Alberta, MacGregor said.
“We don’t need oil anymore,” he said, “We need to grow up from it and be carbon zero.”
But Alexander Murphy noted that Canada is a vast, cold country and he called it unrealistic to expect people to stop heating their homes or flying in airplanes from one coast to the other.
It’s absurd to ask all countries worldwide to stick to the same emission reduction targets, he said, and Canada should therefore withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement.
But Monsef said it would be “irresponsible” to withdraw from the Paris Agreement.
“We are committed to exceeding our targets,” she said, adding that when her young nieces ask her in a decade what she did while she was in power to reach net zero she wants to have a good answer.
When asked what they would do to work with Indigenous people toward reconciliation and environmentalism, Skinner said the Liberals under Monsef have apparently been working for four years to bring an end to boil-water advisories without getting the job done.
Then Murphy called it “disgusting” that Curve Lake First Nation still doesn’t reliably have clean drinking water.
Monsef began her response this way: “As a refugee, I’ve been offered more opportunities than Indigenous people,” she said.
Then she listed, “with humility,” a series of projects the Liberals undertook to advance reconciliation as well as environmentalism: lifting boil-water advisories on many reserves, for example, and moving Curve Lake to the top of the list so it will soon have funding for clean water.
Monsef also acknowledged there’s much more work to do: “We won’t undo 400 years of colonialism and racism in four years,” she said.
Meanwhile MacGregor told the crowd he’s heard that Curve Lake council is now writing up its own constitution — and he said he was pleased to hear this is happening.
Shaw bristled when she heard people referring to Indigenous people as “our First Nations.”
“They’re not ours,” Shaw said. If Canada is “serious” about reconciliation, she added, “we do not ram a pipeline through First Nation territory — it’s unconscionable.”
There were very few moments where candidates took digs at one another, but when Skinner spoke of having travelled the world and seen examples of environmental degradation (he mentioned having seen the polluted Ganges River that flows through India and Bangladesh, for example), Shaw spoke up.
“Mike, if you’ve travelled that much you must have a crazy carbon footprint,” she said.
Ken Ranney, the Stop Climate Change party candidate, also made remarks (although he wasn’t part of the debate).
Ranney said caring for the environment will increase human health: he said there are new studies linking trafficborne pollution with various types of cancer, and if we stop driving cars we’ll get healthier.
Bob Bowers, the independent candidate, made remarks too; he said he stopped driving a car years ago and also stopped smoking.
Those are measures he took to help the planet, he said.
“I know my part’s been done — now, do yours.”