Canada’s federal election is putting climate change front and centre, the author says.
NATHAN DENETTE / THE CANADIAN PRESS Naomi Klein, author of On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal.
Naomi Klein’s new book about how to combat the climate crisis is well-timed. Not only are Canadians increasingly concerned about the global temperature, but the country is also currently in the midst of a federal election campaign, which according to Klein is unprecedented in terms of how the climate crisis is being addressed.
“I think politicians in Canada have finally gotten the message,” the Canadian journalist, activist and author told HuffPost Canada. “A lot of Canadian voters feel a tremendous sense of urgency about the climate crisis, which is really different from [the previous] sort of ’casual caring.”
In the past, she said, “the message that was sent to political parties who were running as climate champions was that there wasn’t going to be a political cost if they didn’t follow through.” Now, though, “I think political leaders understand that there is a price to be paid.”
This sense of urgency has not been an overnight process. According to Klein, Canadians have long had trouble talking about climate change resolutions, due to the deep-rooted ideologies about Canada and its vastness in natural resources.
“This ideology of limitless splendour on which our nations are built is, I think, really the reason why it’s so seemingly impossible for elites, who have grown up immersed in these national narratives that equate Canada with the god-given right to exhaust nature, just cannot accept where we are at,” she said.
“And that’s how you end up with Justin Trudeau positioning himself as a super progressive climate leader, and then buying the tar sands pipeline and marketing its massive expansion as a project of ‘nation building.’”
So given that climate change continues to be a prevalent concern for Canadians, what are some of the policies that voters should look for when deciding who to elect?
Klein believes policies that cater to socioeconomic issues in addition to green technology are key.
Elites, who have grown up immersed in these national narratives that equate Canada with the god-given right to exhaust nature, just cannot accept where we are at. — Naomi Klein
“We are in a moment of multiple overlapping and intersecting crises. It makes no sense to try to pit them against each other or try to rank them,” she said. “Seeing as we [already] have to have huge changes in how our economy works and how we live, why wouldn’t we battle systemic injustices and exclusions at the same time?”
Those injustices play in to the way people will be affected by climate change, she said. MORE
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