Carney casts off Trudeau's climate policies? I told you so!
National Post, 31 May 2026
I noted in a column two years ago that although both support cutting emissions, Carney favours climate prosperity; Trudeau, climate penance.
The (majority) governing Liberal caucus includes Marilyn Gladu; soon it will not include Steven Guilbeault. Who saw that coming last summer?
Not me, but the underlying dynamics were identified nearly two years ago. I readily acknowledge that it is off-putting to say I told you so, but if I don’t say it, who will?
First though, to a remarkable Wednesday in Ottawa. At the morning Liberal caucus, Guilbeault took his leave — the same caucus that includes Gladu, who lambasted Guilbeault for years in the most excoriating fashion. Indeed, in a recent interview Gladu allowed that when she met with Prime Minister Mark Carney ahead of crossing the floor, she explicitly mentioned Guilbeault as one who might object to her joining the red team. No need to worry, Marilyn, the prime minister might have said. Some problems solve themselves in due course.
On Wednesday evening, Guilbeault turned up at the Rideau Club for the farewell fête for Jonathan Wilkinson, the current Liberal MP recently named Canada’s ambassador to the EU. Justin Trudeau, introduced as Katy Perry’s boyfriend, was on hand to witness two of his former environment ministers — Wilkinson preceded Guilbeault — leaving Parliament.
What files might Wilkinson take up in Brussels?
Between the morning caucus and the Rideau Club soirée, Canada signed an LNG deal with Germany. It’s not huge on the numbers, but it is massively significant. Trudeau infamously told the Germans that he would not sell them Canadian natural gas when they asked for it after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Wilkinson’s ambassadorial role should not be confused with the “special envoy” Trudeau appointed to the EU — Stéphane Dion. Dion, who named his dog Kyoto after the UN climate concord, also served as ambassador to Germany. Wilkinson will be expected to do in Europe what Dion was expected to block, namely, increase Canadian fossil fuels sales.
“I went from zero to my own hero,” Perry sings in Hear Me Roar. Not the vibe at the Rideau Club this week, I would suppose, as it’s whimpering time now for the climate agenda of Trudeau-Wilkinson-Guilbeault. The self-anointed heroes of Liberal climate policy wave goodbye to each other, and the net-zero emissions agenda.
Who could have seen it coming?
Mark Carney for one — and those careful enough to pay attention to his actual words. Time for the off-putting I-told-you-so.
“Some may think that (Trudeau and Carney) have similar positions on climate,” I wrote here in August 2024. “Carney is the United Nations Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance, and Trudeau began his premiership by leading a gargantuan delegation to the Paris climate talks in 2015. While they agree on the urgency of reducing carbon emissions to mitigate global warming, they are miles apart on their preferred policy. It is a difference of maximum importance. Carney favours climate prosperity. Trudeau climate penance.”
Carney argued in 2020 that net zero “is creating the greatest commercial opportunity of our age.”
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