Canadian Federal Election a Failure to Address the Climate Crisis
In the early morning of October 22, 2019, the majority of Canadians were blind to the biggest threat facing humanity: the Climate Emergency. They voted Liberals for a minority government, the Conservatives as the official opposition, the Bloc Québécois as the third biggest party in the House of Commons, after which came the NDP as the fourth, and lastly and sadly, the Green Party. I do not understand how the lies, the fake smiles, and the false portrayal with open hands during the election campaign prevailed. Elizabeth May was the only party leader that had and currently has ethics, compassion, morality, and social responsibility as part of her main agenda so that Canada and the world has a chance to survive and seriously tackle the rise in the global average temperature. Once we hit an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius, there is no going back. There is no way of tackling and fighting climate change. We will not be able to fight for our survival when the Earth is on fire. The Earth can do without humans, but humans cannot do without the Earth ridden of its natural resources.
Elizabeth May was and still is the only leader of any political party that is truly concerned with the direction we are headed in. How can Trudeau, Scheer, and Singh not make the Climate Emergency their number one priority? How can the Canadians that voted for them accept this? How can they not see their fake smiles? Their speeches of “promises” and the creation of a sense of security, optimism, goodness, and prosperity for the people of Canada and the world, are all false. Our election results show ignorance, no awareness, and no compassion for current generations, and the future of the younger generations already alive, and many more to be born. This is wrong.
Looking at emotional intelligence and emotional quotient (not IQ, but EQ), there is an aspect called “social responsibility.” According to Howard Book and Steven J. Stein’s book The EQ Edge: Emotional Intelligence and Your Success, social responsibility is “the ability to demonstrate that you are a cooperative, contributing and constructive member of your social group. This component of emotional intelligence involves acting in a responsible manner, even though you may not benefit personally, doing things for and with others, accepting others, acting in accordance with your conscience and upholding social rules. Socially responsible people have social consciousness and a basic concern for others, which is manifested by being able to take on community-oriented responsibilities. They possess interpersonal sensitivity and are able to accept others and use their talents for the good of the collective, not just the self.” Those in governmental power have contributed to the Climate Crisis. They have not listened to climate scientists about the highly negative consequences of burning fossil fuels and other harmful greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. There is no social responsibility exhibited by those humans. Social responsibility is also nonexistent with the major parties. They pushed an agenda that is diverting away from immediate climate action. The Green Party did not. They pushed an agenda for a pipeline that will go through vast ecosystems of forests, through waters with salmon, and Indigenous land. The Green Party did not. The major party leaders pushed an agenda to make you think that they are for a better Canada and world, with fake smiles, with continual lies, all to mislead you, and all without social responsibility. Elizabeth May is for Canada and humanity without a fake smile, without continual lies, without misleading you, and actually has social responsibility. We have to wake up to the lies and misleading said by Trudeau, Scheer, and Singh. Download the PDF Platform of the Green Party, and look at the beginning: “Honest. Ethical, Caring. Leadership.” They proposed an immediate climate action plan called “Mission: Possible”. It looks like in four years’ time when we have our next election, or if we have one sooner, “Mission: Possible” will be very hard to implement. Mission: Impossible.
This may be hard for those of you reading these words, but there is no running away from reality and what is at stake here, and what is predicted to happen. Since 1896, the climate scientists have pleaded and urged governments to stop allowing the emission of destructive greenhouse gases. There has been no social responsibility on those governments for the babies, young children, young people, and the parents of young children now having to raise their kids in the face of the Climate Emergency. Their future, their dreams, and their lives have been stolen.
How many words, articles like mine, petitions by people without the power of government in their hands, graphs, reports, and books by climate scientists, and worldwide climate strikes, will it take to get Trudeau, Scheer, Singh and their supporters on par with reality? The reality of the Climate Emergency? I unfortunately do not know. This could be the answer when the global average temperature surpasses an increase of 1.5 degree Celsius, bringing irreversible and unstoppable climate catastrophes: zero.
This is scary. It is extremely hard for many people worldwide to process that we are in a Climate Emergency. This, unfortunately, is our reality on planet Earth right now. I do not even know if my hopes and dreams of a good, prosperous, happy, positive life in our beautiful world with beautiful cities, oceans, rivers, lakes, mountains, forests, animals, sporting events, school, meaningful work, vacations, and travelling with friends and family, will ever happen. And what about the hopes and dreams of people too young to even read my words, your children, your grandchildren, and your great grandchildren? I simply do not know.
But what I do know is that I can spread awareness about our reality, because knowledge inspires positive action. Our reality is plain and simple as expressed in this article and previous ones in Arthur which you can read online; as David Suzuki expressed it with Elizabeth May in a press conference about the Kinder Morgan and Trans Mountain Pipeline and the future of his grandchildren, which is on YouTube; as Greta Thunberg expresses it; and as climate scientists since 1896 and up to this day have expressed and will continue to express as we enter the year 2020.
The Climate Emergency is real. For any actual immediate change, we should have elected a Green Party government. No other party leader but Elizabeth May is present in reality and wants to do something about it. In our next election, we need to vote as a nation – a nation called Canada, a country that is on the continent of North America, that exist with South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia on a planet called Earth, inhabited by humans and other land species, that are surrounded by oceans with more species, and the air that we breath with more species above us – for the Green Party. On October 21, a car called Canada faced a green light, but did not proceed, and instead drove in the opposite direction.