Sudbury Green Party candidate David Robinson isn’t buying what Liberal leader Justin Trudeau is selling when it comes to oil and gas emissions.
“Have you heard the latest political joke?” Robinson said in a recent news release. “Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau vowed to make sure oil and gas emissions don’t increase. There is a sneaky promise if I ever saw one.”
Robinson said Trudeau promised to cut total emissions by up to 45 per cent by 2030, but the promise doesn’t add up to much.
“And all he can say is that dirty fossil fuel producers will not be allowed to expand their
emissions? That is insane,” said Robinson, adding Canada is the only G7 country that has seen emissions go up since the Paris agreement, and the expansion of Canada’s oil and gas sector is projected to exhaust up to 16 per cent of the world’s carbon budget.
“Trudeau did promise to get the oil and gas industry to ‘net zero’ by 2050,” said Robinson. “But the largest oil sands producers have already committed to reaching net zero by 2050 (so) Trudeau’s big campaign promise adds absolutely nothing.”
He said emissions in the oil sands have expanded by 20 per cent, with the fossil fuel industry producing more than a quarter of Canada’s greenhouse gasses. This expansion, Robinson argued, means everyday Canadians have to cut their emissions by 50 per cent to meet Trudeau’s promise.
“If voters want something better than bafflegab when they go into that polling booth, they can put a check beside my name. They know that little check will make a big impression.”
Still, Robinson said he is not blinded by his actual chances of winning the Sudbury seat.
“We all know I won’t win,” he said. “That is almost my campaign slogan. Sudbury will send a
Liberal or an NDPer. They both have wildly inadequate plans that they stole from the Greens
over the last eight years. Only voting Green sends the signal that you want real climate action.”
