Why A Top Environmentalist Decided To Run For the Liberals

Steven Guilbeault is one of Canada's most distinguished environmentalists, and the co-founder of Équiterre, Quebec's largest environmental organization.

So when he let it be known that he was interested in entering the political arena, the Liberals, the NDP, and the Greens practically fell over each other trying to recruit him.

The NDP and the Greens were sure he would choose one of them because he is strongly opposed to any kind of fossil fuel pipelines.

But he disappointed both of them by choosing the Liberals.



And while that may shock some people, I find his explanation makes a lot of  sense. 

"I disagree with the pipeline," he told CBC News. "But when I look at everything that the Liberal government has done over the past four years, in terms of fighting climate change ... there's so much for me to rally around that, despite this point of disagreement, I've decided to go ahead." 

Unlike some of the environmental zealots out there, Guilbeault says he understands that transitioning to a greener economy will be a lot more difficult than many of those zealots imagine.

For people to claim that they have the answer, well, I'm sorry, but I've been working on this for 25 years and I've been going all around the world and I've been looking at what governments all around the world are doing, and I don't think anyone could raise their hand and say, 'Hey, we have it, we've found the way to transition.' It's complex."

But he says the main reason he is joining the Liberals is because only they can defeat the Cons and their Big Oil masters.

"I do fear that the Conservatives could win the next election and, if they do, everything we've worked for in those past four years will be gone and we will be back to what was happening under the Harper years," he said. "The only party that can stop the Conservatives ... is the Liberal Party of Canada."

Which has always seemed obvious to me, but needs to be repeated because some of those zealots, or silly seniles as I call them, just don't get it...



Can't see the big picture, run around like chickens with their heads cut off, or just don't know what they are talking about.

No, declaring a state of emergency doesn't mean you can shut down the oil industry tomorrow, and throw hundreds of thousands of workers into the street.

It means you have to step up efforts to create new green jobs for them, which is what the Trudeau government is now doing.

And yes, above all it means we have to defeat the Cons or all those efforts will be in vain.

Which interestingly enough seems to be understood by even the greenest of voters, as you can see from this chart:



Which is as it should be.

For like it or not, the next election will come down to a choice between these two men for the job of prime minister.



One is a Con clown who will lead us to a tarry disaster.

And the other is a real leader, who with the help of Steven Guilbeault, will lead us to a greener future... 

And those who don't make the right choice, will regret it forever...