Forest fires and federal politics
Is Pierre Poilievre fanning the flames?
Good morning – here is your Saturday newsletter.
Today I have invited our friend Christopher Holcroft to share his latest thoughts about the terrible fire that consumed half of beautiful Jasper, and Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre’s potential culpability. We also have listings for events marking the 79th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States in 1945.
Steve
The Danger of Poilievre’s ‘Axe the Tax’ Scam Hits Home
A threatened holiday, a devastated town and a grim future.
By Christopher Holcroft
A bear is stretched out on the ashy ground, surrounded by burned trees.
My family planned a wonderful summer vacation. A possibly once-in-a-lifetime, old-fashioned road trip across Canada. Visiting relatives and catching up with friends. Hiking in the Rockies and swimming in the Pacific. Marvelling at the vastness of the land and exploring the richness of its history.
For months Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been telling Canadians that our vacations are under threat from the “carbon tax” and a “wacko” Liberal government led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
But Poilievre is wrong. It is the results of climate change — worsening forest fires, floods and fierce heat waves — that are threatening Canadians’ summer vacations and so much more.
My family’s vacation is now in doubt after the Jasper wildfire and ongoing regional fires. While disappointing, it pales in comparison to what many other families are facing: risks to health and safety, loss of homes and farms, strained emergency departments, damaged infrastructure, shuttered businesses and devastated communities.
Pierre Poilievre must be held accountable for his reckless campaign against climate action.
This is a crisis.
Earlier this month a child in Nova Scotia lost their life due to flash flooding. Last year, six people died as a result of wildfires and related smoke, including a nine-year-old boy. In 2021, more than 600 people died from the effects of extreme heat in B.C. alone.
The Canadian Climate Institute calculates that by 2025 all households will lose income from the effects of climate change, with lower-income households impacted most.
The federal government’s pollution-pricing policy response to climate change — the carbon tax — is evidence-based and supported by environmentalists and economists alike.
Similar mechanisms have been adopted in at least 40 other countries and 25 sub-national jurisdictions.
Despite rampant disinformation, Canadians have seen this approach works effectively. Emissions are being reduced, and with the Canada Carbon Rebate the vast majority of Canadians are financially better off under pollution pricing — and this is before factoring in the costs of doing less to combat climate change.
Canada is one of the world’s worst per capita contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, but public support for climate action is strong. Three elections have been won, in part, on the issue of pollution pricing.
Canada is one of the world’s worst per capita contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, but public support for climate action is strong.
Opposition to climate action stems mostly from Canada’s largely foreign-owned fossil fuel industry, American dark-money-funded think tanks and Canada’s major newspaper chain, owned by American hedge funds.
Poilievre’s Conservative party can be added to this list, his latest irresponsible act being a demand to pause all federal gas and diesel taxes for four months over the summer.
Good for the fossil fuel industry but bad for everyone else, and Poilievre did not even get the math right.
Gas tax revenues help pay for much needed road, transit and water infrastructure, as well as the carbon rebate.
For Canadian vacationers driving an electric car or hybrid car (my family planned to rent such a vehicle), or travelling by train, bus, plane or bicycle, Poilievre’s tax cut will be completely or largely irrelevant.
Poilievre rarely, if ever, speaks about climate change. I have heard no indication he understands the enormity of the threat, or that he cares about its consequences.
Poilievre demonstrates amazing audacity. He says on social media that his “thoughts are with those in Western Canada facing the threat of wildfires near their homes” and his prayers are with the evacuees — just hours after posting about his pledge to “axe the tax.” It brings to mind American politicians who vigorously oppose banning assault weapons yet send “thoughts and prayers” after a mass school shooting.
Last summer, Poilievre cancelled several of his “axe the tax” rallies due to devastating climate-related events. This leaves the impression that climate change is an acceptable, if inconvenient, part of Poilievre’s pursuit of power — similar to the fossil fuel industry’s pursuit of profit.
As a father and a citizen, I find this appalling.
Canada cannot slogan its way out of the climate crisis, and Poilievre’s referring to politicians who understand this as “wacko” should be embarrassing for him, and a warning for the rest of us.
Canada is on fire. Poilievre’s inflammatory rhetoric is making things worse.
Christopher Holcroft is a writer and principal of Empower Consulting.
This article was also published by The Tyee
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Thank you for everything you do for peace.
Steve
At last, someone else realizes the positive of this arbon tax - climate warming is destroying our forests and towns - we really must do something - paying a tax that we get back later is the very least to help pay for all the damage.
D. Hall
Every Canadian should read Fire Weather, the Making of a Beast, by John Vaillant. It is about John's investigation of the Fort McMurray destruction by wildfire in May, 2016. John points out that humanity and all life are in dire trouble due to our political, business and media leaders and owners failure to tell us the truth about what our relentless adding of greenhouse gases to our closed system atmosphere is doing to our forests, particularly the circumpolar boreal forest. The dried peat base, high temperatures,.low humidity and fuel base in these forests have created the fire monster that has never been seen before by our civilization. We may have already tumbled into a positive feedback loop of more and more deadly fires like we are seeing destroy human towns like Fort McMurray, Litton and Jasper. There will be more to settlements that have no defence's. Our governments, media and businesses are in denial about the severity of where we find ourselves. We actually need to stop CO2,methane and other greenhouse gas emissions now or we and our loved ones have no future. All our military spending should now be diverted to an all out adaptation and mitigation of the real enemy, out of control climate heating. Canada should immediately create a permanent mobile forest management brigade led by First Nations experts who have understood fire in the Boreal Forest for thousands of years. Homes built in the Forest should be made of non-fossil fuel components and fire retardant materials. Sales of large fossil fueled private vehicles should be banned immediately. All our buildings should be upgraded to use less energy.