Election 2025 took a heavy toll on climate champions

The 2025 election saw a handful of climate champions lose their seats.

Some MPs with a history of work on climate, environment, jobs and related issues chose not to run — including Charlie Angus, Richard Cannings, Monique Pauzé and Kristina Michaud — but others were defeated, in some cases due to a split of the progressive vote. 

Here is a quick look at some key climate voices that won’t be returning to the House of Commons this session.

Laurel Collins, NDP

One of the most obvious losses is Laurel Collins, unseated in Victoria by Liberal Will Greaves. Collins was the NDP’s critic for environment and climate change. 

Collins led the negotiations on eliminating international fossil fuel subsidies, something she said the Liberals would not have done without pressure from the New Democrats.

Collins was “a great collaborator and ally to the climate movement,” Caroline Brouillette, executive director of Climate Action Network Canada, said in an interview with Canada’s National Observer.

“She was particularly vocal regarding ending fossil fuel subsidies and different legislative and regulatory mechanisms to hold the oil and gas industry accountable for its pollution,” Brouillette said. “She's one voice that many environmentalists will miss in Parliament.”

She sat on the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development which dealt with issues, including fossil fuel subsidies, greenhouse gas emission reduction measures, toxic oilsands tailings leaks, plastic regulation and more.

Former Green MP Mike Morrice had high praise for Collins’ climate work, particularly her push to get federal funding for a Youth Climate Corps, a priority shared by the Green Party. He recounted a reception she held that brought MPs, parliamentary secretaries and cabinet ministers together with civil society in an attempt to earn federal funding for the idea. 

“It wasn’t about her,” Morrice said, noting this isn’t always the case when MPs hold such events.

This work paid off — the Liberals’ election platform included a two-year pilot Youth Climate Corps with funding of $28 million each year.

Mike Morrice, Green Party

Morrice lost narrowly to Conservative Kelly DeRidder in Kitchener-Centre, leaving Elizabeth May the lone Green in Parliament.

“I'm probably most proud of putting forward the motion calling for a windfall profit tax on the excess profits of big oil that came directly from gouging Canadians at the pumps,” Morrice told Canada’s National Observer in a phone interview. The Parliamentary Budget Officer determined the proposed one-time tax of 15 per cent on the sector’s excess profits could rake in $4.2 billion over the next five years.

That motion did not pass, but started a larger conversation around how we could reinvest the excess profits of the oil and gas industry to make life more affordable and address the climate crisis, he said.

Although the Green Party doesn’t get a seat on federal committees because it doesn’t have official party status, Morrice was always showing up to meetings and pushing his colleagues — sometimes successfully — to let him question witnesses, including oil and gas CEOs.

“We're on track for a 3.2 degree rise by the year 2100 and what I've heard from the executives who've joined us this morning is that there's no need for an emissions cap. There's no need for windfall tax on their excess profits. There's no need for any regulation. They've got it all covered when, as we heard from Mr. van Koeverden, their emissions are rising considerably on an absolute basis, as well as a per-barrel basis,” Morrice said on June 6, 2024 to Suncor CEO Rich Kruger and Imperial Oil CEO Brad Corson. 

He recalled collaborating with NDP and Bloc Quebecois MPs to hold press conferences along with civil society groups and climate experts to ensure their voices were heard in the House of Commons.

Brouillette noted that Morrice’s work on disability justice and the Canada Disability Benefit, while not directly climate-related, was “really significant” and important work. 

Like most Conservative candidates, DeRidder did not participate in local debates.

Taylor Bachrach, NDP

Taylor Bachrach was the NDP transport critic, a file intrinsically linked to climate change because 23 per cent of Canada’s national emissions came from the transport sector in 2023.

Bachrach led the charge by calling out the gradual privatization of Via Rail’s proposed high-frequency rail corridor in Ontario and Quebec, Morrice said.

“Taylor is just such a well-spoken, well-researched, far less partisan and climate-focused parliamentarian,” Morrice said.

Bachrach also regularly appeared at other committees, including the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development, where he grilled the head of the Alberta Energy Regulator about oversight of the Kearl oilsands tailings leaks, as did many of his NDP colleagues. 

Bachrach and Collins also initiated a committee study of environmental contamination at the Transport Canada dock in Fort Chipewyan. Brouillette recalls working with him at COP 28 in Dubai and said he is someone who “deeply understands” the issues around sustainable jobs and just transition.

Others: 

Some MPs didn’t work directly on the climate file but their work and parliamentary contributions intersected with it.

Like many Albertans, former Edmonton Griesbach MP Blake Dejarlais has family ties to the energy sector — both he and his father were energy workers — but this did not stop Desjarlais from confronting an oil and gas lobby executive over hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid property tax that fossil fuel companies owe to municipalities. Desjarlais commented on emissions and the need for a just transition in his role on the International Trade committee.

Desjarlais and NDP MP Lori Idlout also called out the federal government for its ongoing failure to support First Nations dealing with climate emergencies after a 2022 report by the auditor general revealed chronic underfunding. Idlout was re-elected on Monday.

“There is no separating climate action from reconciliation and the need to listen to Indigenous leaders,” Morrice said.

Niki Ashton of the NDP represented Churchill-Keewatinook Aski since 2008, but was defeated Monday by Liberal Rebecca Chartrand. This northern Manitoba riding has faced wildfire evacuations and other climate impacts felt acutely in Canada’s North: the city of Flin Flon was without internet or cell service for days after wildfires burned through fibre optic and telecom lines, leaving residents, the hospital and other major services in the dark.

Ashton called on the federal government to use its jurisdiction over telecommunications companies to ensure critical infrastructure plans are in place for communities during climate emergencies, particularly in areas prone to climate catastrophes such as wildfires.

Brouillette said another climate casualty of the 2025 election is John Aldag, a former Liberal MP and chair of the Standing Committee on Natural Resources. Aldag’s leadership on the proposed oil and gas emissions cap and Sustainable Jobs Act “was essential,” she said, particularly when the Conservatives filibustered the Sustainable Jobs Act for weeks. Aldag resigned from his federal role to run in the BC election last fall, was unsuccessful and was defeated Monday by Conservative incumbent Tako Van Popta in Langley Township-Fraser Heights. Former Liberal MP Leah Taylor Roy was also an effective member of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development, according to Brouillette.

Natasha Bulowski / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer