On Earth Day

This previous Monday marked the forty-third annual Earth Day. While the day is intended to celebrate to celebrate Canada’s natural beauty, the day also provides an opportunity to educate, empower and motivate Canadian to achieve solutions that will improve the state of our environment.

Unfortunately, Canadians are currently dealing with a Conservative government that has gutted environmental protections and abdicated any national leadership role in combating climate change.

The current federal government must finally recognize and act on the challenge ahead. Climate change pays no regard to national borders and remains the most pressing environment issue facing the planet. The government must stop its delay tactics and immediately introduce a plan to cut back on Canada’s contribution to global climate change.

On this Earth Day, we must recommit to protecting our natural environment, particularly for the health and well-being of our children and grandchildren. To further ignore Canada’s pressing environmental needs would be a huge disservice to future generations.

It is time for the Government of Canada to take immediate, concrete action on the serious environmental challenges confronting Canada.

They will not make such changes on their own, however. Where there are Canadians that care about the environment; they must demand change. The strongest way to do this is to send the federal government a message by denying them your vote in 2015. Luckily for those in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), two of the government’s leads on the issue of climate change represent constituencies in our region. Given recent statements by both Peter Kent, Minister of the Environment and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Thornhill, and Joe Oliver, Minister of Natural Resources and the MP for Eglinton-Lawrence, it is doubtful they will heed your call.

As recently as this month Oliver stated, “I think that people aren’t as worried as they were before about warming of two degrees...”

For Canadians to convince the federal government that they actually do care, they will need to be loud. Good thing those of us in the GTA don’t have to travel too far to find the Prime Minister’s most senior representatives.