Not A Recipe For Success

When it comes to climate change, the Conservatives just don't get it. Chantal Hebert writes:

There’s no lack of significant policy differences between the two leading contenders for the leadership of the federal Conservative party. But on the need for a radical shift in Canada’s climate change policy, they are on the same page.

The party — whether it is led by Pierre Poilievre or Jean Charest after Sept. 10 — would seek to dismantle the climate change infrastructure put in place by Justin Trudeau’s Liberals over the past seven years.

It would start by repealing signature pieces of legislation pertaining to the environmental assessment process of major energy-related projects.

Under a Conservative government led by Poilievre or Charest, the federal carbon levy would also be scrapped.

The problem is that, for the Conservative base, climate change is a non-issue:

The low profile of climate change as an issue in the leadership campaign reflects a long-standing disconnect between the conservative base that will be selecting the party’s next leader and Canadians in general.

While there is a wide consensus within the electorate that reducing the country’s carbon footprint is a priority, the Conservative party is the home of choice for the minority of voters who do not see mitigating climate change as urgent or even necessary.

Little more than a year ago, a majority of the delegates to the party’s last national convention refused to endorse a resolution to affirm that the issue of climate change needed to be addressed.

One can pinpoint the beginning of Erin O’Toole’s eventual demise as party leader to the day he pivoted on carbon pricing in the lead-up to last summer’s federal campaign.

Whoever leads the party will lead it backward -- not a recipe for success.

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