POLITICAL LOWLIGHTS OF 2014 – #3: Conservative Climate Change #Fail

In 2014, we saw a Conservative government plagued by scandals, out of touch with challenges facing Canadians and preoccupied with photo-ops and their own partisan interests. Meanwhile, Justin Trudeau’s Liberals fail to hold Conservatives to account and, after two years, we still have no idea where they stand on key issues.

A year’s worth of scandals and ineptitude condensed into our annual list of the top political lowlights of the year... LOWLIGHT #3: Conservatives Climate Change #Fail

Way back in 2007, Prime Minister Harper was pretty clear about his intentions on climate change:

“Mr. Speaker, this government has said it will bring in a national system of regulations for the control of greenhouse gas emissions.”

And for seven years, regulations on oil and gas emissions were always just around the corner.

Flash forward to this year, and suddenly Conservatives are not only distancing themselves from this policy, they are disavowing it.

“Under the current circumstances of the oil and gas sector, it would be crazy, it would be crazy economic policy to do unilateral penalties on that sector. We're clearly not going to do it.” – Prime Minister Harper, December 9, 2014.

The oil and gas sector is the largest and fastest growing source of emissions in Canada. Just days before the PM made this comment, Environment Canada released a report showing that Canada is making no progress towards achieving our emissions reductions targets, all thanks to Conservative inaction.

Canadians deserve better. And after nine years of Stephen Harper, Canadians just can’t afford to wait for Justin Trudeau to get ready.

Tom Mulcair’s New Democrats can be trusted to hold Conservatives to account while fighting for families and proposing common sense solutions for issues they are facing every day.