In recent years Canadians have been regularly bombarded by a very specific kind of advertisement that claims to represent grassroots interests and opposes any government effort to enforce environmental regulations. They’re the creations of third party advertisers, often little more than an arm's length away from conservative parties and the fossil fuel sector, and are perhaps the single biggest direct source of environmental disinformation in Canada.
Despite the security dangers posed by U.S. President Donald Trump, there is no way a new – or resurrected – pipeline project would be completed in less than five years
Jonathan Wilkinson would like everyone to take a deep breath, when it comes to one of the biggest, costliest and riskiest ways that Canada could try to assert itsenergy independence in the face of Donald Trump’s threats.
"The Trump administration is trying to roll back decades of critical health and safety regulations that have saved millions of lives and are all that's standing between us and runaway climate change," said one campaigner.
While U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin boasted Wednesday of canceling billions of dollars worth of green grants, considering the rollback of dozens of regulations, and shutting down every environmental justice office nationwide, critics warned the moves will have dire consequences for people and the planet.
As gas prices rise again in Ontario and British Columbia, leaving millions of Canadians at the mercy of volatile markets—and Wall Street—health and climate experts say it’s time for policymakers to break free from fossil fuels.
The looming threat of a trade war with the U.S. has focused attention on lessening Canada’s historic dependence on trade with the our neighbours to the south.
“The accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere is irreversible on human timescales and will affect climate for millennia” -- World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
In the space of a mere few weeks, the Canadian political terrain has shifted dramatically. Between Prime Minister Trudeau’s imminent departure and Trump’s attacks on Canada’s economy and sovereignty, a Conservative majority led by Pierre Poilievre in the coming months no longer seems like a foregone conclusion. In an otherwise bleak global landscape, many in Canada are breathing a sigh of relief that polls are showing a stunning collapse in the Conservatives’ lead, especially when poll respondents are asked to consider a Mark Carney-led Liberal Party.
The danger confronting Canadians is not President Trump’s on-and-off tariff toggle. That’s only a symptom. The more significant threat is our deep integration with, and hence dependence on, the US. This has compromised our formal sovereignty and will continue to block our substantive sovereignty – the democratic capacity to choose our own directions without external (i.e., US) pressures.
