After 10 years of Harper’s failure on climate, Mulcair is ready to lead

Following a decade of Stephen Harper’s inaction, Tom Mulcair’s bold leadership on climate change is what Canada needs now.

“Under Stephen Harper’s lack of leadership Canada has become an international laggard on climate change,” said Megan Leslie, NDP Environment Critic (Halifax). “Harper is in denial, or he doesn’t care – either way, his failure to act on climate change is alarming.”

Under Harper’s watch, the Conservatives withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol, muzzled scientists, fired over 4,000 federal researchers and slashed over $1.1 billion in federal spending on science and technology in the last four years alone.

“We have scientific consensus, countries need to cut their emissions in order to keep the rise in global temperature below 2 degrees, but Conservative greenhouse gas reduction targets are a joke,” said Laurin Liu, NDP candidate for Rivière-des-Mille-Îles. “Tom Mulcair has a bold plan to take action on climate change now, and an NDP government will start delivering that plan on day one.”

Harper plans to reduce GHG emissions to 14% below the 1990 level, which is nothing compared to the NDP’S 34% commitment that will ensure Canada’s does its global fair-share for emissions reductions. Meanwhile, the Liberals won’t say what their commitment is.

As Prime Minister, Tom Mulcair will go to the climate conference in Paris ready to work with this international community and with an aggressive climate change plan Canadians can be proud of.