Over the last two elections, the Liberal government has bolstered on an all-inclusive, progressive, youth-oriented, gender-equitable, and environmentally-conscious campaign that promises "real change." Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has gone to great lengths to point out the previous Conservative government's failures to reach environmental targets. The Trudeau government has taken a progressive role in global negotiations, like the Paris Agreement and COP2, to encourage climate change initiatives. Trudeau has failed to meet most climate targets, set by the Liberal Party. Trudeau pushed a “greener than thou” image despite going against his promises by agreeing to build pipelines in sacred Indigenous lands. The Liberal Party continues to hide their real inaction and does not take accountability for their failures to reduce emissions.
The Liberal government uses “performative environmentalism” tactics by hyper-focusing on personal activism to persuade Canadians that this is the way to global sustainability. The Liberal government leveraged youth environmentalism, a movement gaining in popularity, especially among youth who are challenging traditional power relations. The Liberal Party participated in mass climate change protests, which drew awareness to both individual and collective actions. The Liberal government has benefited from youth environmentalism and bolstered this individual approach to "save the earth" campaigns that focus on micro-level actions rather than macro-level issues like destructive policies that allow for polluting industries to prosper. Trudeau has spent much of his time in Parliament failing to make serious system changing commitments and backpedaling on issues that address the root of the problem - companies. The truth is we do not share the blame; only 100 companies are responsible for 71% of global greenhouse gas emissions since 1998.
In 2015, Trudeau presented a new image of Canada that takes a progressive constructive tone to rectify Canada's reputation in the fight against climate change. Trudeau declared that Canada is taking a new leadership role internationally. During Trudeau's first term, nine provinces committed to a cap and trade system to reduce emissions by 30% below 2005 before 2030. He pledged a $2 billion investment to Clean Water and Wastewater Fund (CWWF) for more reliable systems, and pledged $5 billion green infrastructure projects through the Canada Infrastructure Bank. The federal government's initial commitments reflect the need for urgent and unprecedented mitigations in fossil fuel consumption. In 2017, Trudeau pledged, along with other G7 members, to completely phase out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies by 2025 (Maciunas & Saint-Geniès, 2018, p. 10). The Liberal government campaigned on moving towards a feasible economic and low-carbon energy option for Canada; however, all of these commitments to transform our economy have fallen through. In his first term, Trudeau failed to uphold most of his campaign promises, including placing the environment as his "top priority". He approved of two pipeline projects: the first being Enbridge Line 3 Pipeline, which transports oil from Alberta to the U.S. Midwest and the second being Kinder Morgan's Trans Mountain Pipeline, which aims to move oil and bitumen to ports in British Columbia. Trudeau's commitments to "protect the environment" are entirely undermined and incompatible with his controversial approval of new pipelines.
Despite the Liberal government's failed initiatives in the last four years of Parliament, the Liberals were still able to monopolize from environmental anxiety to maintain their image of hope as the only Party able to progress Canada towards environmental sustainability. As a result, they were able to secure the 2019 election. During Trudeau's second term, he focused on the sentiment that the Liberal minority government can achieve a consensus between the demands for substantial economic returns from these pipelines and efficient environmental action. The Liberal Party's words do not reflect their actions because they continue to support the expansion of these pipelines, even after Trudeau declared a climate emergency. Trudeau even joined political rallies and the Climate March in Montreal to advocate for climate change. In this way, the Liberal government benefitted from the urgency of climate change by not being held accountable and maintaining their reputation.
Trudeau has benefited from performative environmentalism by partaking in climate marches to score social justice points and escape from the truth that he has contributed to the setbacks of decarbonizing Canada. Trudeau even held a meeting with Greta Thunberg, a Swedish climate activist, continuing to push this narrative that Canada is constructive and progressive. The Liberal government put on a public display of youth congregation and solidarity in environmental activism to masquerade as a party for the people by the people.
The federal government underestimated and oversimplified the transition away from resource extraction. They tried to appease both ends of the political spectrum instead of keeping their promises. Trudeau's environmental stance to develop energy extraction projects contradicts and stalls the fight against climate change. Trudeau’s policies only expose the hypocrisy of the Liberal government. His destructive policies favor oil and gas corporations who benefit from shorter-term production growth. Trudeau’s progressive image and his public support for climate activism does not reflect his closeted contracts with fossil fuel companies.
The Liberal government’s wavering and hypocritical stance only fuelled colonial tensions between the government and Indigenous peoples. Trudeau's hypocrisy undermines the Liberal government's racial inclusion stance, youth collectivism, and preservation of Indigenous rights. The Trans Mountain Pipeline is being built on sacred Wet'suwet'en territory. The federal government refused to intervene to address their concerns and create an even playing field against the multi-billion-dollar company. Indigenous communities deserve protection for their lands, culture, and heritage. However, the federal government's inability to stand with Indigenous peoples' exposes their weakness in leadership. The government fell into the economic pressures, and pressures from Western provinces feeling alienated and unheard by the federal government. Additionally, Trudeau failed to provide clean and accessible drinking water to all First Nation reserves in the CWWF. Indigenous peoples have been unfairly impacted the most by these million-dollar pipeline deals that intrude on their land, as they have not been protected by the government - the same Liberal government who promised to restore relations and provide clean water.
The Liberal government's strategic uses of performative environmentalism conceals their destructive policies and colonialist, pro-corporate legacies. The government agreed on decarbonizing Canada by taking on targets set by the Harper government. The government wavered in their position and only spoke out when convenient. Trudeau did not fulfill most of his campaign promises and never spoke out for or against oil corporations. His failure to speak out only exposed power structures that benefited corporations and provided the Liberals time to stall from accepting accountability. The pipeline disputes fuelled Western separatism and deserved criticism from the Indigenous community.
The future of climate negotiations has been stalled by the COVID-19 pandemic; however, the federal government should move towards rapidly diversifying the economy and sanctifying its relationship with First Nations communities. There is still time for Trudeau to give Canadians the accountability of shorter-term emissions targets and transparency we need to restore faith in him and the Liberal Party.
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