Good Sunday Morning! I hope everyone found some time for peace and quiet this week. For a change, I did! Back to parliament tomorrow.
The who Liberals gathered this weekend in Montreal have been in a triumphant mood. They are buoyed by floor crossings, including the most recent by Sarnia Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu. I know Marilyn well. As much media has mentioned, Marilyn is congenial. We have found places where we can agree. We both opposed Bill C-9, the Liberals’ new anti-hate bill—although we opposed it for different reasons. Along with the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and others, I think it violates Charter rights of freedom of assembly and rights to protest. In debating me in the House on C-9, Marilyn said Liberal MPs said she belonged in jail for her views. She asked, did I agree? On that we agreed that she should not be in jail! For her to jump to that Liberal ship is jaw-dropping. After her support for the convoy and anti-climate action views, she was about the last Conservative I could imagine crossing the floor. It leaves me wondering if there is any MP too anti-Liberal that Mr. Carney would not welcome them with open arms? The whole episode brings new meaning to “big tent” party.
Meanwhile, I am troubled by how close the Liberals’ convention skates toward crossing the lines of Elections Canada rules. With three by-elections tomorrow, one in the Montreal riding of Terrebonne, it reminds me of when Elections Canada would not allow the Green Party to hold our long-planned 2008 convention in Pictou, Nova Scotia once Harper broke his fixed election date law and called for a general election. My riding was in Pictou County. What the Liberals are doing is not against elections law, but they controlled the date for the by-elections and the date for their convention, giving them a clear advantage in pre-vote publicity. I am so proud of the campaigns waged by the Green teams on the ground in Terrebonne, Scarborough Southwest, and University-Rosedale.
I continue to rage as Canada moves away from climate action.
In 2021, at Glasgow’s COP26, Mark Carney was the conquering hero. He was UN Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Climate Finance Advisor as he announced the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ). The commitment was astonishing. Not just billions of dollars for the transition from fossil fuels. Carney announced $37 trillion for the move to renewable energy. At COP26 Carney said, “This is the breakthrough in mainstreaming climate finance the world needs. I welcome the leadership of… global banks for their new commitments to net zero and for joining forces with GFANZ, the gold standard for net zero commitments in the financial sector. Most fundamentally, GFANZ will act as the strategic forum to ensure the financial system works together to broaden, deepen, and accelerate the transition to a net zero economy.”
Five years later, where is GFANZ? What of the leadership of global banks? And, if we follow the money, where is the $37 trillion??
In a word, “poof!” It all disappeared.
This from a January 2025 report (link below)
“In April, the GFANZ group the Net Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA) dissolved after a series of members departed.
“GFANZ had attracted fanfare as well as suspicion early on, not only over the sincerity of big banks that bankroll the fossil fuel industry, but also about their ability to coalesce around varied net zero goals.”
So now I watch the skillful political moves of Mark Carney. Canada is marching backwards, away from climate action while in parliamentary debates, the prime minister and his energy minister celebrate that our fossil fuel production is at an all-time high. Unlike press releases, the build up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is real and largely irreversible. Knowing we are running out of time, I wonder at the cognitive dissonance of those who understand climate science and yet continue to act as though we have all the time in the world? Federally and provincially, whether under Alberta Premier Danielle Smith or BC Premier David Eby, or Doug Ford or NS’s Tim Houston, we are petrostates—committed to fossil fuels, even when the economics do not add up.
There is hope. While Canada moves to the bad guy column in the climate wars, many countries are still committed. Eighty five countries tried at last year’s COP30 to develop the road map to get off fossil fuels. Later this month, many of those governments will gather in Colombia for a conference to begin a global transition away from oil, gas and coal. The First International Conference on the Just Transition Away from Fossil Fuels opens on April 28 in Colombia. I have seen nothing in our Canadian media about it, but here is an article to inspire hope. Mark Carney will not be attending.
None of us have the luxury of despair. We have the duty to hope, and work hard.
Please help boost the signatures to this very modest petition (below). It closes on April 29.
In the meantime, enjoy our Canadian spring and let’s hope against hope the coming season is not one of our climate nightmares.
With deep appreciation and lots of love.
Elizabeth
Petition to the Prime Minister
Whereas:
- We support our Federal Government’s efforts to make Canada an Energy Superpower and recognize that for many Canadians this means continuing to make major investments in oil and gas infrastructure, including pipelines;
- For Canadians committed to protecting our biosphere, becoming an energy superpower must also include abundant investment in renewables generation, transmission and storage technologies that will support our low Greenhouse Gas emission economy;
- For Canadians committed to protecting our biosphere, becoming an energy superpower cannot include any further investment in power generation through burning coal;
- Canada has some of the best renewable energy resources on Earth, many of which are underdeveloped; and
- A commitment to matching, dollar for dollar, any federal investment, use of tax-credits or financial support for the development of hydrocarbon-based infrastructure with funding for renewables-based infrastructure would catalyse development of our renewable energy resources.
We, the undersigned, Citizens of Canada, call upon the Prime Minister to
- Provide a legislative foundation that supports our stated commitment to protect our shared environment as we develop energy infrastructure by ensuring that any federal investment, use of tax-credits or financial support for the development of hydrocarbon-based infrastructure, including carbon capture and storage infrastructure, be matched, dollar for dollar, by federal funding for renewables-based infrastructure; and
- Enact legislation to end coal-fired power generation by 2035.
History
Closed for signature
April 29, 2026, at 11:43 a.m. (EDT)
https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-7114
thanks all!
xo Elizabeth