Leehi Yona '16 on Climate Change and the Canadian Election

Justin Trudeau’s words — words of hope, shared optimism and a better future — rang out loud and clear Monday night. The CBC’s Peter Mansbridge noted that the Liberal Party leader’s victory speech was reminiscent of a hopeful Barack Obama in 2008. There was one hitch, though: many of the people who elected Trudeau didn’t vote Liberal because they believed in him. Their vote for the Liberal Party was more a vote against Harper than for our future prime minister.

This is the reality many Canadians — including myself — faced. We voted strategically, for the candidates who would be best placed to defeat the Conservatives. After nine years of a Harper government filled with laws that went against Canadian values — gutting environmental policies, creating second-class citizens, cutting funding for the CBC and muzzling scientists — we were desperate for the Canada we used to know.

Read the entire article in the Montreal Gazette at http://montrealgazette.com/news/national/opinion-on-climate-change-justin-trudeaus-positive-rhetoric-wont-be-enough.