Where do Local Election Candidates stand on the Climate Crisis?
By: Amanda Smith, M.P.S.
Now more than ever, environmental concerns are at the forefront of voters’ minds. In the most recent survey by Forum Research, 26% of surveyed Canadians identified the environment as the most important issue in the upcoming election, topping even the economy at 25%. This is a massive increase from earlier this year, where the same survey found that only 15% of Canadians believed the environment was the top election issue. This also strays from previous elections, where the top two election issues have consistently been healthcare and the economy.
There could be a number of factors affecting this shift, including recent media attention surrounding the carbon tax, an increase in extreme climate events across the country, and the growing number of reports and studies from leading climate research organizations tying human activity to a rapidly changing global climate. Accordingly, these environmental issues will be an influential force for voters this election season.
Despite the importance of this issue, the task of accessing this information can be challenging for most of us, and scrolling through pages of multiple candidates’ platforms to find the environmental information you are looking for can be tedious and time consuming. To help facilitate this, GreenPAC, a non-partisan, non-profit organization working to elect and support environmental leaders of all major parties running for office, has created a solution, so environmental platforms can be easily accessible and addressed directly by local candidates!
All ridings within Waterloo Region will be participating in this initiative called “100 Debates on the Environment” which will consist of 100 debates between local candidates in ridings across the country. Locally, these events will feature all candidates from each of our 5 ridings taking time to answer questions specific to their environmental platforms.
You can attend in person or catch the live stream on their respective Facebook event pages. Tickets for these events are free and can be ordered per riding using the links below:
Don’t forget to connect with 100 Debates on Twitter and Instagram @100DebatesWR or shoot them a question at WR100Debates@gmail.com.
Times and locations of each debate:
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Amanda Smith, M.P.S
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