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Canada's Climate Weekly

July 9th 2022
Feature story

Tread carefully

Good morning!

If all goes to plan — and that’s a big if given the state of our airports — I’ll be on a plane by tonight. I’m taking off for a summer break from the news and a bit of time in the great outdoors. Specifically, the Icelandic outdoors, where I’ll be cycling over gravel roads (and massive hills) and trying to find the walk-in, self-serve fish fridge my colleague told me about.

For that reason, you won’t see this newsletter in your inbox for the next two weeks, but if you’re on our daily mailing list, you’ll still get Canada’s National Observer stories every morning. (And if you’re not, what are you waiting for?! Sign up here.) I’ll be back Saturday, July 30 with more news, possibly some weird cycling tan lines and a few stories, I’m sure.

But before I head off, I’m taking a look at the suburban stroll Pierre Poilievre took just before Canada Day and what it says about the Conservative Party. Read on to learn more and find out what columnist Max Fawcett has to say about whether the move could help or hurt Conservatives in the next federal election.

As always, you can let me know what you think of this newsletter at [email protected]. Again, I’ll be out of office for a while but will catch up on your messages when I return.

In the meantime, stay safe, be kind and have a good July!

— Dana Filek-Gibson

 

 

Looking for our reads of the week? You can find them at the bottom of this email.

Walk around and find out

The CPC is now the Convoy Party of Canada — Photo via Pierre Poilievre / Twitter

The Conservatives’ latest embrace of the so-called “freedom convoy” began in a strip mall parking lot west of downtown Ottawa.

Just before noon on June 30, leadership hopeful Pierre Poilievre met up with James Topp, the soldier who set out on a cross-country walk to protest vaccine mandates. For roughly a half-hour, the two men strolled toward the National War Memorial with droves of anti-mandate supporters in tow. They chatted about public health measures, the country’s political divisions and John Diefenbaker. Camera people got out in front to capture the scene.

Since the start of Topp’s journey four months ago, several of the COVID mandates he is protesting have been suspended: the federal government no longer requires vaccines for people who board trains or planes in the country, work for the federal government or take a job in federally regulated transportation sectors, though you do still need a jab to serve in the military. Topp, an army reservist, was charged in February after criticizing federal vaccine mandates in uniform — a strict no-go for members of the Armed Forces — and is currently facing a court martial.

Poilievre later explained his choice to associate with Topp by saying: “People should have the freedom to make their own decisions with their own bodies.”

But the convoy movement that has rallied around Topp is about more than just vaccines. From the get-go, organizers of the months-long occupation in Ottawa earlier this year put out a “memorandum of understanding” seeking to dismantle the government (they later withdrew it to avoid “unintended interpretations”). One of the movement's most vocal supporters has championed a racist lie known as the replacement theory and encouraged violence. Now, several of the original convoy leaders are facing charges — some from behind bars — and vaccine mandates are largely a thing of the past, but the movement has evolved into a loose, leaderless collection of groups pushing an assortment of causes.

A convoy protester holds up a jerry can with the words "Filled with Love" on Monday, Feb. 7, 2022 in Ottawa, Ont. File photo by Spencer Colby / Canada's National Observer

One thing that’s remained the same, though, is the convoy movement’s connections to far-right extremism. Topp has reportedly made multiple appearances on a podcast hosted by Jeremy MacKenzie, de facto leader of the white supremacist, antisemitic Diagolon movement. The Canadian Anti-Hate Network describes Diagolon’s members as accelerationists trying to hasten violence, anarchy and societal collapse.

Which is an important part of why Poilievre’s walk with Topp made headlines: a man poised to become the next leader of the Conservative Party chose to appear alongside someone who’s shared the airwaves with a far-right extremist.

It’s not just Poilievre, though. A week before his meeting with the army reservist, fellow leadership candidate Leslyn Lewis and 22 other Conservative MPs — one-fifth of the Conservative Party caucus — showed up to a presentation by Topp, convoy spokesperson Tom Marazzo, convoy security director Daniel Bulford and Paul Alexander, a science adviser to former U.S. president Donald Trump. Interim party leader Candice Bergen has given her caucus the OK to attend convoy protests. Add in the fact that former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall was texting advice to a different convoy organizer who’s now facing charges over his involvement in the protest, and Poilievre’s walk isn’t really about one politician or one photo op — the Conservatives in general are embracing a movement with ties to the far right.

To dig a bit deeper into what this means for the Conservative Party and Canadian politics, I asked Canada’s National Observer columnist Max Fawcett for his take. Here’s what he said:

Dana: What does Pierre Poilievre's walk with James Topp — and the Conservatives' relationship to the convoy movement more generally — say about where the party is right now?

Max: I think it says that the Conservative Party of Canada's braintrust is all-in on the convoy and its brand of politics. But the bigger question for me is what does that mean for their strategy in the next election? Poilievre is clearly the front-runner in the race, and it's hard to see how this embrace of a fringe right-wing personality helps him with a general public that is widely opposed to the convoy. It's generally assumed that whoever wins the leadership will tack back towards the centre to try and win over the voters the CPC needs to win a general election, but this walkabout suggests to me that they see a different path to victory — one paved with [People’s Party of Canada] supporters and other Canadians who buy and believe this stuff. If it works, it will put Canada in a very different (and dangerous) place.

What about party members who have distanced themselves from the convoy movement and its extremist elements? If the party does embrace convoy supporters more enthusiastically after the leadership race, what might happen to Conservatives — both politicians and everyday Canadians — who don't align with more right-leaning MPs like Pierre Poilievre and Leslyn Lewis?

I suspect they'll talk a big game and end up doing very little. Yes, they could create a new Progressive Conservative Party, and there would certainly be a market for that among both disaffected conservatives and disaffected blue Liberals. But the actual work of building a party from scratch is both painstaking and time consuming, and I just don't see these folks being willing to put that work in. That's especially true if Justin Trudeau remains Liberal leader for the foreseeable future, since the hatred of him will probably be strong enough among even centrist Conservatives to keep that party together for another election cycle.

Throughout the CPC leadership race, we've gotten a sense of how the party might be changing. But what about Canadian politics as a whole? How does Topp's audience with the likes of Poilievre, Lewis and nearly two dozen other Conservative MPs impact the overall tone and conversations on Parliament Hill, not just among the CPC but all parties?

I'd imagine that watching your colleagues meet with people who want to orchestrate an illegal coup and arrest the prime minister for treason, among other deeply unrealistic things, would be a tough pill for some government MPs to swallow. But the Poilievre wing of the Conservative Party of Canada clearly believes that this sort of Trump-esque approach to politics works for them, and they're clearly in the ascendancy right now. Until they're dealt a decisive defeat, I suspect they're going to continue pushing things in this direction. That's incredibly dangerous for our country and its political discourse, but I don't get the sense that they care much about things like decency and decorum (or even democracy).

Reads of the week

Is Trudeau to blame for the chaos at our airports? Not even close. "While it might be tempting to blame Ottawa, the real culprits here are broader trends in both airport staffing and resurgent COVID case counts," writes columnist Max Fawcett.

Chalk River nuclear waste facility decision paused for consultation with two First Nations — “It's a huge victory for us,” says Coun. Justin Roy of Kebaowek First Nation. The delay extends the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission's review into next year.

With climate crisis at our doorstep, UNESCO’s youth advocate pushes for cash to educate the world — Everyone should have access to education that's relevant to the challenges of today, says UNESCO youth advocate Kenisha Arora from Mississauga, Ont. That includes helping "young people address climate action and transform climate literacy into climate action."

How to move your money — for the good of the planet. Trying to break up with your bank? Here’s a quick guide.

Dog photos and veiled threats: How Canada’s fertilizer lobby is fighting against climate lawsA trove of documents obtained by Canada's National Observer gives a rare glimpse into the friendly — and occasionally tense — relationship between lobbyists for Canada's fertilizer industry and the federal government.

Solar project repurposing abandoned oil and gas wells launches pilot in sunny Alberta town — A project aiming to repurpose inactive oil and gas well sites for solar energy is officially underway.