Pierre Poilievre still isn’t serious about climate change 

Image makeovers are a familiar staple of political campaigns, and few people need one more desperately than Conservative Party of Canada Leader Pierre Poilievre. In an effort to improve his likability with Canadians, Poilievre has ditched his signature glasses in favour of a more casual look.

The internet, of course, had a field day with it. But if Poilievre actually wants to move the needle on his personal approval ratings and improve his chances of defeating Justin Trudeau’s Liberals in the next election, he’ll need to do something much more drastic: take climate change seriously.

After losing two elections on the back of a fundamentally unserious approach to the issue, you might think Canada’s Conservatives would at least experiment with a different approach.

Not Poilievre, though.

Instead, he’s doubled down on the party’s climate cantankerousness, with the proposed elimination of the carbon tax and rebate as his only real intellectual contribution on the matter. His alternative, if you can even call it that, is some vague notion about technology and hand-waving in the direction of China.

Never mind the growing evidence that China is dominating the global renewable energy market or that the technologies that define it are supported by the carbon tax he so vociferously opposes. Instead, Poilievre and his party remain stuck in a mindset from the Harper era, where Canada’s high-carbon fossil fuel exports are held up as the path to national prosperity rather than a potential albatross in a rapidly decarbonizing world.

Now with the federal carbon tax hitting the Maritimes and the clean fuel standard kicking in on July 1, his party is ratcheting up its rhetorical volume even higher.

This will please its political base, which is heavily weighted towards Alberta and Saskatchewan and the people who seem determined to ignore the climate and energy realities that are unfolding around the world. But that’s no way to win a federal election, especially when you need to pick up more votes in places like suburban Toronto and Vancouver.

As the Globe and Mail’s Andrew Coyne wrote, “The lesson of the past three elections is that carbon pricing has become table stakes in federal politics, at least among voters in the regions and demographics the Conservatives need to reach: the sign of whether you’re serious about climate change, and therefore fit to govern. After this season of fire, that is only likely to be more true.”

Indeed, a recent Abacus Data poll showed 86 per cent of Canadians said having “a good plan to address climate change and grow Canada’s economy” will impact their vote, with two-thirds of Canadians 18 to 29 describing it as “essential” or “very important.” This isn’t some niche issue, either.

As Abacus’s data shows, it’s a top-five concern for Canadian voters, ranking just below the cost of living, housing, health care and the economy. Among those who rated it as one of their top-three issues, only 15 per cent intend to vote Conservative. As Clean Energy Canada’s Trevor Melanson noted in a recent op-ed, “Pierre Poilievre has a mountain to climb, and he hasn’t even put on his boots.”

Poilievre could easily pivot here. He could, for example, eliminate the rebate from the carbon tax that many Canadians still don’t seem to know exists and use the revenues to cut income taxes. He could, if he insists on feathering the oil and gas industry’s nest, use the money to create even larger subsidies for its half-hearted attempts at decarbonization. Or he could take the Joe Biden path and propose a series of regulatory changes that stimulate investment in low-carbon technology without putting a price on carbon.

Or he can keep dying on the same political hill where the hopes of his predecessors are buried. The Trudeau Liberals will happily accept the in-kind donation, since they need all the help they can get right now.

But for a guy who seems consumed by his hatred of the government, and especially its leader, it’s odd Poilievre refuses to do the one thing that might actually help him win. Losing your glasses can only go so far, after all, when the real problem is an inability to see what’s right in front of you.