Good Sunday Morning! Happy Easter!! Chag Pesach kasher vesame’ach! Or in English: have a kosher and joyous Passover!
John and I are celebrating in Ashcroft BC.
So much has happened this week—the Carney administration finally announced promised funding for the Nature Strategy, and the NDP leadership race was won by Avi Lewis. What impacted me most profoundly was the death of Avi’s father, whom I loved very much. As Stephen Lewis approached the end of his days, from palliative care he held on to see Avi win.
I had the great good fortune to work with Stephen Lewis in the 1980s when he served as Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations. In September 1987, my boss, Minister of Environment Tom McMillan, sent me to New York a few days in advance of the special gathering of the General Assembly to mark the acceptance of the report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (known as the Brundtland Commission). Tom McMillan was to deliver Canada’s response, which I had already written. We worked with the brilliant scientist, chief science advisor to McMillan, the late Fred Roots. It was Fred who framed our response noting that “planet earth does not support and sustain a hospitable biosphere due to some intrinsic characteristic of this rock revolving around the sun, but rather, it is life on earth itself that protects the life of this blue green ball, the only planet in our solar system that supports life.” Going to the Canadian offices in the United Nations was a great treat as it meant working with Stephen Lewis. The night before the session, my boss arrived late and without his luggage. There was a great to-do about the matter and how he would address the United Nations without his chosen blue suit. By the time he made it to the UN Plaza hotel, he had already dispatched his ministerial driver to his Ottawa apartment to collect a darker suit to be brought by his chauffeur on the very first flight available to New York to arrive before the speech. Meanwhile, Air Canada confirmed that the luggage with the preferred suit would ALSO arrive before his speech with time to change between the addresses from other county representatives. I only relate this sad sartorial crisis because it allows me to share Stephen Lewis’s marvelous sense of humour. The many clips broadcast in the tributes following his death have shown Lewis’s passion, eloquence and courage, but not so much his humour. Stephen learning of the lost luggage incident laughed heartily. I can see him as though it was yesterday. “Well, Tom could wear blue jeans. That would be perfect. Last week Daniel Ortega spoke wearing battle fatigues, so a Canadian minister in blue jeans would be just right.”
Needless to say, McMillan wore two different suits that day. Liberal Environment Critic and one of my favourite-ever friends, Charles Caccia, said afterwards, “Elizabeth, the speech was very good, and so was his suit—both of them.” Stephen Lewis was not only eloquent and inspiring as a speaker, but his was a casual brilliance… and often vastly entertaining. When I was at the United Nations a few years later for a session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, Stephen Lewis chaired a panel. When introducing the next speaker, he admitted he had no biographical notes. The speaker was unknown to Stephen, but his introduction, unlike the speaker, was unforgettable. “I am confidently informed that when our next speaker walks through the towns and cities of his region, people rush from their homes hoping to clutch at his raiment.”
Our closest time working together was when I was one of the organizing team for the June 1988 International Climate Conference in Toronto, “Our Changing Atmosphere—Implications for Global Security”. Two prime ministers opened the conference—Mulroney and Norwegian PM Gro Harlem Brundtland, and Stephen Lewis chaired the meeting.
After that immersion in climate science, he never stopped working on climate. So while he is rightly known for his work to free Nelson Mandela, for championing the fight to end the scourge of HIV AIDs, and for the work of the Stephen Lewis Foundation, he was also engaged in more good and important causes than anyone can list. He and David Suzuki were close friends. His death, after years of fighting a cancer he was told would end his life years before it did, is still much too soon.
I wish Avi the best in facing multiple challenges. I know my place (and I hope yours) is to keep building a strong Green caucus of MPs. Unlike the NDP, all our provincial cousins hold to the same core values as federal—and—Global Greens. We always hold the line for human rights, social justice and the planet.
Back to the week’s news… the long-awaited funding for the Nature Strategy was announced Tuesday. Below is the Green Party press release, critiquing the announcement; whether the funding met Canada’s commitments from the 2022 COP15 Kunming-Montreal conference. I attended COP 15 along with many other Greens, including co-leader Jonathan Pednault, Deputy leader Rainbow Eyes, Indigenous elder and member of the GPC Indigenous Peoples Advisory Circle, Grandma Losah, and elected Greens from around the world. The back-story of that meeting is an inspirational example of triumphing against all odds. After many COVID delays, Part I of COP15 took place in October 2021, as an entirely virtual gathering. China’s strict COVID regulations precluded meeting in person. Hopes were high that by spring 2022, Part 2 could take place in person in Kunming. It was late spring when it became clear that China’s zero-COVID policy prevented meeting in person. In June, Steven Guibeault, then Minister Guibeault, went to then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with a nearly impossible idea. Guilbeault pitched that Canada could offer to co-host with China, holding the conference at Palais des Congrès in Montreal. The runway was steep—to organize a global meeting with thousands of participants in less than six months. Trudeau was immediately enthusiastic. Guilbeault and the Parks Canada staff pulled it off! The results for nature were above expectations. I will never forget seeing how Steven, never a diplomat, used non-traditional methods. He was on his phone 24-7, pulling together agreements. He used WhatsApp to get ministers on side. He keeps pushing for nature, now as a backbencher.
Green Party responds to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Nature Strategy announcement
April 1, 2026
The Green Party of Canada welcomes the fact that, as of yesterday, March 31, Canadians finally have some certainty about funding for biodiversity and for Canada’s international commitments adopted at COP15, which Canada co-hosted in Montreal with the People’s Republic of China in December of 2022. It was a significant achievement for Canada that the Kunming-Montreal biodiversity COP took place at all.
Worryingly, there was no reference to nature in Budget 2025. To confirm that the Prime Minister was committed to climate and biodiversity goals, including the specific commitment to protect 30% of Canada’s marine and terrestrial environments by 2030 (30 by 30), in November 17th’s Question Period, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May asked the Prime Minister for his word.
This was his response:
“This budget puts us on the path for real results for climate, for nature and for reconciliation. I can confirm to this House that we will respect our Paris commitments for climate change, and we are determined to achieve them.
I can confirm with this House that consistent with our Kunming-Montreal commitments, the nature strategy will be released in the coming weeks.”
Given the government’s backtracking on climate commitments, including the November 27 Alberta-Ottawa MOU, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May has continued pressing for a clear funding announcement for nature, including in a meeting with the Prime Minister on February 24, 2026.
As ‘coming weeks’ stretched into months, Canada’s conservation and nature advocacy organizations along with the Green Party of Canada have grown increasingly concerned. Meanwhile, layoffs at Parks Canada have already occurred.
“The commitment of $3.8 billion to achieve the targets of 30% protection by 2030 is very good news. Specific references to programmes that were at risk of sun-setting is a much needed reprieve—including for the Pacific wild salmon strategy, for the Indigenous Guardians programme and for species at risk,” said Elizabeth May.
Yesterday’s announcement acknowledges there remain large gaps in hitting the 30 by 30 goals. Still the commitments under the Kunming Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework were not solely to those critical targets.
May noted that the significance of the COP15 decision was in a shift to seeing humanity’s relationship to Mother Earth as a critical element in averting an extinction crisis. Kunming Montreal commitments include “urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss”… and to take whole of government approaches to live “in harmony with Mother Earth.” (emphasis added)
Yet much of the Build Canada Strong agenda is to move fast, and without regard to biodiversity loss, on AI data centres, new pipelines, building a highway through the thawing permafrost of the MacKenzie Valley and deep ocean drilling off Newfoundland, among a long list of projects referred to the Major Projects Office. The accelerating climate crisis is already having devastating impacts on biodiversity. The 2021 heat dome that killed 619 British Columbians also killed billions of marine animals.
May concluded, “On this April Fool’s Day, I am reminded of the old margarine TV ad, ‘It’s Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature.’ Clearly yesterday’s announcement leaves much work to be done to heal our relationship with nature. We must adhere to our commitment to halt and reverse the ongoing assault on Mother Earth. We have no time to fool around.”
Parliament is not in session until April 13, so my work is local. I am grateful I was able to work in the two by-elections in Scarborough Southwest and University Rosedale over two weekends. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has called on voters to give Mark Carney more Liberal MPs, to achieve a majority government. Ford’s endorsement would feel weirder if not for Prime Minister Mark Carney tacking to the Conservative, bulldozer, “build-baby-build” agenda. In fact, Ford related that the first time he met Mark Carney, the Prime Minister said “I am more conservative than you.” (Toronto Star, April 2, 2026.) Election Day is April 13, but advance voting started on Good Friday. The same dates also apply to the by-election in Terrebonne.
For those who observe Easter, closing with joyous Hallelujahs! To everyone else, remember the immortal words, “Save the Earth. It is the only planet with chocolate!”
Love and thanks!
Elizabeth