10 November 2016
The Right
Honourable Justin Trudeau, P. C., M. P.
Prime
Minister of Canada
Langevin
Block
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A2
Dear Prime
Minister
I am writing concerning interim Conservative Leader Rona
Ambrose’s comments reported by the CBC today that, in the light of Donald Trump’s
election to the American presidency, it would be “complete insanity” for Canada
to implement a carbon tax. According to
her statements quoted in the story, Ambrose’s principal criterion for determining
environmental and economic policy seems to be avoiding what she considers to be
competitive disadvantage in respect to the United States. Because, she reasons, “Americans would never
do” so, adopting a carbon tax in Canada “makes no sense anymore” (www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trump-environment-energy-ambrose-1.3845889).
By extension, then, it would seem to make no sense anymore
for Canada to pay any attention to conclusions of scientific bodies such as the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that “Warming of the climate
system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are
unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed,
the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, sea level has risen, and the
concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased” (http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar5/wg1/WG1AR5_SPM_FINAL.pdf). Indeed, it would seem to make no sense
anymore for Canada to pay any attention to any scientific evidence or rational
thought whatsoever. Better to let our
policies be informed by ideological fantasies that do not reflect mainstream
Canadian values held by some outside our borders whom no Canadian ever elected to
represent them.
I urge Canadians to stay the course in pursuing the
objectives to which we pledged ourselves at the CP21 Agreements in Paris last
year and to extend our efforts to live sustainably—within the limits of the ecosystems of which we
are inextricably a part and with the commitment to justice and social equity
that the notion of sustainability should imply.
Laurier thought that the twentieth century would be Canada’s century. Perhaps he missed the mark by one hundred
years. Canada has much to offer in terms
of vision and leadership, but only if we as a people have the moral courage to
accept the challenge.
Yours
truly,
Jay
A. Cowsill, PhD
