climate change – mackaycartoons

Tuesday August 1, 2017

July 31, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator, Tuesday August 1, 2017

Murray quitting as environment minister signalling a climate change at Queen’s Park

Premier Kathleen Wynne is suffering the loss of a key member of her cabinet with the surprise departure of Environment and Climate Change Minister Glen Murray, the Star has learned.

March 2, 2017

Murray, 59, who has been out of the country and was unavailable for comment, will announce Monday at Queen’s Park that he is set to resign from provincial politics.

The Toronto Centre MPP, also a former mayor of Winnipeg and one-time Star columnist, has been Wynne’s point person on climate change.

He will step down immediately from cabinet, forcing the premier to do a minor shuffle of her executive council on Monday morning, but will remain as an MPP for a few more weeks to wind down some local constituency business.

Internationally respected on environmental issues, he was first elected in a February 2010 byelection after then-deputy premier George Smitherman left to run for mayor of Toronto and lost to Rob Ford.

Former premier Dalton McGuinty elevated Murray to cabinet just six months later where he served as minister of research and innovation. After the 2011 election, he was promoted to minister of training, colleges, and universities.

After McGuinty stepped down in October 2012, he launched a Liberal leadership bid, but dropped out to support Wynne shortly before the party’s convention in January 2013.

The new premier rewarded him for his timely endorsement, which gave her campaign momentum, by making him transportation and infrastructure minister in February 2013.

Following her majority victory in June 2014, Wynne moved him to the Ministry of the Environment and added “Climate Change” to his title to underscore its importance as Ontario was joining Quebec and California in a cap-and-trade system.

In a move some Liberals felt demonstrated petulance, Murray responded to being shuffled by taking to Twitter that June 25 and saying: “Today it sunk in the last election was my last.”

“Promised that if I couldn’t make a difference in 8 or 10 years I couldn’t make a difference,” the minister tweeted more than three years ago.

“First openly gay person elected in Canada. I have to thank Winnipeggers for electing me councillor and mayor and TO for electing me MPP and minister,” he continued.

“Minister of Environment in Ontario is the best political position I have ever had the privilege to hold. I was not demoted. Kathleen Wynne put me in a position where I can fight to ensure we can survive climate change.”

While his prophecy turned out to be true, Murray had indicated to allies more recently that he planned to run again next year, so his exit is blindsiding the governing Liberals.

A strong performer in the legislature, where he usually deflects opposition questions skilfully, he has emerged as one of Wynne’s better known ministers. (Source: Toronto Star)

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Friday June 2, 2017

June 1, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday June 2, 2017

Trump announces U.S. will withdraw from Paris climate accord

U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that the United States will withdraw from the Paris agreement on climate change.

April 11, 2017

At a news conference in the White House Rose Garden on Thursday afternoon, Trump said the accord is “very unfair to the United States.”

“In order to fulfil my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord.”

Trump said his country would either renegotiate its re-entry into the Paris agreement under different terms, or participate in the creation of a whole new climate deal.

March 8, 2017

White House officials had signalled withdrawal was likely to reporters, but Trump has been known to change his mind at the last minute on major decisions, as happened recently with the NAFTA trade deal.

Abandoning the accord was one of Trump’s principal campaign pledges, but America’s allies have expressed alarm about the likely consequences.

April 20, 2017

The Paris agreement was struck in 2015 and months later, the U.S. and China jointly said they would sign off on the deal. The agreement went into effect for the U.S. in November 2016.

Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, has criticized Trump’s resistance to the deal, saying the U.S. president doesn’t understand the fine print of the agreement and that the process of formally withdrawing could take two to three years. (Source: CBC News)

Saturday December 10, 2016

December 9, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday December 10, 2016

Canada’s Liberal Government, Most Provinces Set to Endorse Climate Pact

Canada’s Liberal government and the bulk of provinces are set to endorse a pact late Friday to fight climate change, even as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tries to revive the energy sector with the recent approval of two pipeline projects.

The climate pact is expected to endorse a federal carbon-pricing scheme unveiled in October and plans to phase out coal-power electricity, and comes as President-elect Donald Trump signals Washington is moving to lessen regulation in a bid to drum up more investment in U.S. resource development.

Vice President Joe Biden, in Ottawa as part of a two-day visit the Canadian capital, urged Canadian leaders to carry on with their carbon-reduction efforts because corporate America and the rest of the world are on that very path, despite the policies of the incoming administration.

“Whatever uncertainty exists around the near term policy choices of the next president, I am absolutely confident the United States will continue making progress in its path to a low-carbon future,” Mr. Biden told Mr. Trudeau and provincial premiers. “Regardless of whether the next administration is as aggressive as we have been … there is no way to turn back this tide that has begun to roll.”

At an official dinner Thursday, Mr. Biden said the world would be counting on Canada and Mr. Trudeau to show leadership on important global issues at this time of uncertainty in Europe and the U.S.

Mr. Trudeau has positioned the fight against climate change as one of his government’s signature issues, with the Liberal government aiming to reduce carbon output by 30% below 2005 levels before 2030. Agreement among Ottawa and the provincial capitals fulfills a promise from Mr. Trudeau to build a national consensus on tackling climate change, and marks a pivot from the previous Conservative administration which tended to focus on championing resource development.

Not all Canadian provinces, though, will be onboard. Brad Wall, the premier of Saskatchewan, said he won’t endorse any pan-Canadian climate-change plan that calls for a carbon tax. Under the federal plan, Canada would start pricing carbon pollution at 10 Canadian dollars ($7.58) a metric ton in 2018, and that would rise steadily to C$50 a ton in 2022. (Source: Wall Street Journal)

Wednesday November 23, 2016

November 22, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday November 23, 2016

Continental contrast with Coal

Canada plans to phase out most coal-powered electricity plants by 2030, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna announced Monday.

By speeding up the timeline for closing coal-fired plants, which spew more pollution than most other fossil fuels, the country expects to reduce its carbon emissions by 5 megatons, or the equivalent taking of 1.3 million cars off the road. Coal makes up nearly three-quarters of the Canadian electrical industry’s greenhouse gas emissions, and over 8 percent of the country’s total carbon footprint.

Roughly 80 percent of Canada’s electricity currently comes from zero-emission sources, McKenna said. Under the new regulations, that number should increase to 90 percent over the next 14 years. Other countries, including Austria, Denmark, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, have also accelerated their plans to wean themselves off coal, according to The Wall Street Journal.

But the move comes as the U.S., Canada’s largest trading partner, seems set to scale back environmental regulations and bolster the coal industry once President-elect Donald Trump office next year.

Trump campaigned hard in coal country, promising to put miners back to work by slashing pollution restrictions and scrapping President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which would have forced the utility sector to use more renewable energy. Most of the coal industry’s biggest players have gone bankrupt over the last two years, in large part because of ill-conceived bets on the future of Chinese economic growth. Even coal barons who backed Trump admit the coal industry isn’t coming back. (Source: Newsweek)

Thursday November 10, 2016

November 9, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday November 10, 2016

Trudeau pledges to work with president-elect Trump

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has congratulated Donald Trump on his stunning upset election win and is pledging to work with the president-elect, saying the two nations have a common goal in the success of their citizens.

In his first comments Tuesday’s U.S. election, upset, Trudeau looked past the months of divisive debate south of the border and stressed what the two countries have in common.

“The relationship between Canada and the United States is based on shared values and shared hopes and dreams and we will always work well together,” the prime minister said in Ottawa.

June 29, 2016

“We are strong because we listen to each other and we respect each other,” he told students gathered at a We Day event.

“I’m going to work with president-elect Trump’s administration as we move forward in a positive way for not just Canadians and Americans but the whole world,” he said.

It was a theme that was also reflected in Trudeau’s official statement on the election and his comments on social media Wednesday as Ottawa awoke to a new and surprising reality in America.

In a statement, the prime minister said that his government looks forward to working with the U.S. on issues such as trade, investment, and international peace and security.

“The relationship between our two countries serves as a model for the world. Our shared values, deep cultural ties, and strong integrated economies will continue to provide the basis for advancing our strong and prosperous partnership,” Trudeau said in his statement. (Source: Toronto Star)