Canada's Prime Minister
may be a great communicator. He clearly has the ability to inspire people to be
optimistic about the future. He is reasonably bright, far more diplomatic than
his father and his boyish charm is attractive to people both in Canada and
around the world. It may be the first
time that a Canadian Prime Minister has attracted so much positive international
attention. He says all of the right things about climate change, women's rights,
immigration and world peace. It is time however, that he started to do more
that talk a good talk. Trudeau is facing two specific issues that not only may
define his time in office but may define Canada and its role in the world for
the next few decades.
Just under a year ago
(5/25/16) I did a piece entitled " On
Being a Smug Canadian " in which I suggested that it was easy for
Canadians to criticize other countries' (notably the USA) immigration policies
because our borders were not vulnerable to large numbers of people sneaking in.
Well - things have changed. Small numbers of illegal immigrants from the USA
have, ever since Trump's election, started to cross into our country. So far
there are not the thousands of people who cross over the USA's southern
borders, nor are there the thousands and thousands of people from the Middle
East who are attempting to cross into European countries. Still it is a test
for us and I am not sure that we will pass.
The federal government must start to allocate resources immediately
so that the small towns along the border can provide the necessary initial
levels of support. If we believe that we
have a collective responsibility to support those who have asked for help, then
we need to collectively create a national response. We must ensure that those
small border towns do not carry the emotional or financial costs alone. At the
same time we also need to ensure that there are sufficient resources in place
to process the refugee applicants, do the security screening and to help them
to relocate to other parts of Canada. If Canada starts now to provide those
supports then we will not be overwhelmed when the numbers increase. If we wait
too long, then the capacity of the residents of those towns to care will rapidly
disappear. Then the only option may to create one of those horrendous refugee
camps that one sees on television. That cannot be an option for us.
The second issue facing the federal government is Trump's
declaration that dealing with climate change is not a priority for his
administration. In fact he does not believe that climate change is even real or
at least that it is caused by humankind's use of fossil fuels. To that end he
has promised to lower emission standards for vehicles and factories, to do away
with regulations that deal with the use of coal fired hydro plants and to encourage
oil and natural gas extraction including fracking. Trudeau has, of course, made
the exact opposite argument. He has publically, on international stages,
promised to lower Canada's total carbon emissions. Various large manufacturing
and/or international companies are now saying very clearly that if Canada
continues on this path, the already uneven playing field will become so
unbalanced that Canadian companies will not be able to compete with their competitors
to the south. The pressure to lessen the federal government's stance on climate
change will only increase in the upcoming months.
We cannot allow that to happen. We must, as a country, keep
our promises to the world community. We cannot allow the bully to the south to
force us to ignore the science so that we (or at least some of us) can become
richer. We cannot afford to lose four years
-the climate is changing far too quickly. We must not listen to only
those who believe that the international business world knows what is best for
us. Commerce is important. We need a vibrant economy and that includes
manufacturing that must compete on the international market. But not at the
expense of our grandchildren living in a world that can no longer support them.
It is easy to make great speeches - it is equally as easy to
make promises. It is even easier when
big brother to the south agrees with us. The hard part is following through on
those promises when he doesn't. It is time that we started to do so.
