Stop the Hogs!

How Trudeau Is Screwing Over the Generation That Got Him Elected

[ https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2016/12/28/T ... ign=281216 ]

He thinks he can expand fossil fuels and keep young voters. He’s wrong.

By Geoff Dembicki , | TheTyee.ca December 28, 2016

Geoff Dembicki reports for The Tyee. His work also appears in Vice, Foreign Policy and the New York Times, and his book, Are We Screwed? How a New Generation is Fighting to Survive Climate Change, will be published internationally by Bloomsbury US in 2017.

Let’s get something straight. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s approval of the Kinder Morgan pipeline, as well as his recent support for Keystone XL [ http://ca.reuters.com/article/idCAKBN14A1S0 ] isn’t just a rebuke to Canada’s environmental movement, dozens of First Nations and the Metro Vancouver voters who elected 15 Liberal MPs.

Trudeau has effectively said “screw you” to the generation of millennials who brought him to office. “I feel betrayed,” one young activist explained [ https://dogwoodinitiative.org/cynical-b ... -c-voters/ ]. For the rest of his time in office we won’t let him forget it.

Don’t misunderstand our anger. This isn’t just some idealistic outburst. If you’re in your 30s or younger you have a much different relationship to climate change than our leaders. Unlike them, you could be alive to see the sea level rise that swallows every coastal city on the planet. “I’m really scared,” 19-year-old UBC student Kate Hodgson told the Georgia Straight. [ http://www.straight.com/news/841011/you ... n-pipeline ]

So when Trudeau approves the $35-billion Petronas LNG project, rubber stamps Kinder Morgan and Enbridge’s Line 3 pipelines, talks about building Keystone XL now that Donald Trump is president, and then claims it’s all “integrated into our Pan-Canadian framework on fighting climate change,” people my age have every right to be angry. It’s our future he’s gambling with.

MORE:

[ https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2016/12/28/T ... ign=281216 ]

Arrested students to Trudeau: approve pipelines, lose the youth vote

[ https://ricochet.media/en/1486/arrested ... youth-vote ]

October 24, 2016

“Why are you willing to get arrested to stop this pipeline?” It’s a question that we answered to family and friends countless times in the lead up to the Climate 101 action today in Ottawa, in which 99 of us were arrested by police just outside the doors of parliament.

We talked about standing in solidarity with Indigenous peoples, like the Tsleil-Waututh Nation who have been fighting on the frontlines against Kinder Morgan since day one. We talked about how being in our early twenties, we’ve never lived through a month of below average temperatures. We thought about the die-off of the Great Barrier Reef, wildfires in western Canada, desertification, drowning small island states.

Sometimes, in fact, thinking about all the reasons we took action got overwhelming. But that’s when we would remember the real reason we were willing to get arrested to stop the Kinder Morgan pipeline — because my generation has power. With a surge in youth turnout in last year’s election my generation helped deliver this government its mandate, so much so that many pollsters and pundits point to millennials as the main reason the Liberal Party currently has a majority.

Monday’s action on Parliament Hill should be seen as putting Justin Trudeau on notice — if he approves a pipeline, he’s going to lose millennials.

The numbers break down like this. In 2015, 45 per cent of people between the ages of 18 and 25 voted for Justin Trudeau’s party, many looking to the Liberal leader as a progressive, climate-minded potential prime minister, attuned to the interests of young people in this country. Some of us cast a vote for Trudeau because we wanted to see the end of the Harper era, and because, on the election trail, Trudeau promised to respect Indigenous rights and listen to climate science.

Like many in our generation, we believe in moving past business-as-usual pipeline politics. That’s probably why a CBC poll from earlier this year found that “those under the age of 35 are consistently more likely to oppose [pipeline] proposals.”

Monday’s action on Parliament Hill should be seen as putting Justin Trudeau on notice — if he approves a pipeline, he’s going to lose millennials. If he loses millennials, he could lose the 2019 election.

MORE:

[ https://ricochet.media/en/1486/arrested ... youth-vote ]