Liberal MP Steven Guilbeault was, for a time, the right man for the moment. That moment was 2019 and a few years that followed, before the worst polarizing effects and economic shockwaves of the COVID pandemic took hold and climate change still rated as a top political concern for Canadians. Guilbeault, a former Greenpeace activist turned Liberal politician, based much of his campaign on climate change and won a seat in his first ever bid for federal office. It was a tough political environment. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s “sunny days” were already waning; the Liberals won, but only by a hair, and were forced to govern with a minority government. 

However, Guilbeault’s personal star was shining brightly. Trudeau immediately appointed the rookie MP as heritage minister. It was a relatively cushy warmup for the job Guilbeault really wanted — minister of environment and climate change. And in 2021, when yet another election was held and the Liberals won, he got it.

Guilbeault became synonymous with consumer carbon pricing, which was a political lightning rod from day one and “Axe The Tax” became the defining drumbeat of the Conservative campaign. The tax, with its opaque rebate structure, was so unpopular that Carney would later campaign on a promise to eliminate it to steal the thunder from his rivals. 

Guilbeault had some significant, albeit short-lived, wins. He introduced clean electricity regulations that came close to ending Canada’s reliance on coal for electricity generation. He designed and was promised a greenhouse gas emissions cap to curb industrial pollution. 

He acknowledged jumping to........

© National Observer