Justin Trudeau hopes this endorsement will sway British Columbia voters, but will it?

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau was in Richmond, BC, on Tuesday to show the endorsement of former BC Green Party leader Andrew Weaver in an attempt to lock in climate-conscious voters.

Trudeau didn’t announce anything new at a morning news conference, but flanked by Weaver and North Vancouver candidate for the Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson argued that British Columbia could not trust Erin O’Toole’s conservatives. on climate change.

“We know the conservatives on the climate,” Trudeau said. “We live 10 years of cities, of provinces pushing hard to do more on climate change with a federal government that not only did not do much, but dragged its heels and interfered with the ability of other people to do more.”

“Mr. O’Toole, in this most recent version of the Conservative Party, (you want) to go back exactly to Stephen Harper’s goals and Stephen Harper’s approaches to the environment,” Trudeau said, highlighting O’Toole’s. support for Northern Gateway pipeline, approved by Harper before it was fired in 2016.

Northern Gateway is not referenced on the conservative platform, but O’Toole has tried to make it a wedge problem after Trudeau promised to limit emissions in the oil patch.

The Conservatives did not respond to a request for comment.

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With a narrow lead On O’Toole’s Conservatives nationally, Trudeau kept most of his message to two points: that Conservatives would undo climate progress and that Liberals are better positioned to meet climate goals. But, sensitive to progressive voters in British Columbia, Trudeau also sought to bring down the NDP.

“Despite what Jagmeet Singh and the NDP say, there is a difference whether or not there is a conservative or a liberal government,” he said.

Trudeau said the NDP “did not step up the fight against climate change” and “the NDP did not bother to come up with a real plan.”

The NDP responded an hour after the press conference ended to say that Trudeau promised to cut emissions in 2015, but failed to do so, citing the fact that Canada’s emissions have grown more than any other G7 country since the Paris Agreement was signed.

“We can no longer afford his empty words,” Singh said in a statement.

Weaver described the liberal platform as a plan that “I had been dreaming about most of my life.”

“For the first time in many, many years, in fact, in my career, I have seen a platform with costs that is really doable and will meet our goals, which is based on scientific evidence and not ideology,” he said.

Clean Energy Canada CEO Merran Smith said she agrees with Weaver that the liberal plan is ambitious and robust.

“British Columbia is a battleground for this election and the people of British Columbia are known to care about the climate, so I think we see climate leaders like Andrew Weaver speaking clearly that the liberal climate plan is the only plan. solid to address climate change, “he said. said.

Climate advocacy group 350 Canada’s campaign manager Amara Possian agrees that Trudeau’s press conference to show Weaver’s endorsement is a sign that liberals are stepping up their fight for climate-conscious voters. from British Columbia, but he doesn’t think the party is compromised.

“It’s a clear sign that liberals are concerned that they are losing climate votes in British Columbia and, frankly, they should be,” he said. “After the summer we just had, it is unthinkable that British Columbia voters will back a party that bought TMX, is giving billions to Big Oil, and has climate targets well below what we need to get to 1, 5 ° C “.

British Columbia’s 42 federal seats are turning into a battlefield in the final stretch of the election as the Bloc Québécois chews on liberal support in Quebec. after last week’s debate. Ontario and Atlantic Canada appear to be locks for the Liberals, while the Conservatives are far ahead in Alberta and the Prairies.

John Woodside / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada National Observer