Monday night in Toronto, Justin Trudeau held a climate change rally. It was a desperate and transparent attempt to change the channel from the snowballing SNC-Lavalin obstruction of justice crisis hitting the Liberal government and swallowing up the PMO.
Trudeau has lost two high-profile cabinet ministers — AG Jody Wilson-Raybould and Treasury Board President, Jane Philpott — after allegations surfaced, that he and several high-profile Liberals and partisan bureaucrats improperly pressured the former AG to defer prosecution of the Montreal-based engineering firm.
But the most pressing issue for Justin Trudeau on Monday was… climate change?
That’s weird, especially when poll after poll shows that climate change is not a top of mind electoral issue for most Canadians. In fact, environmental issues regularly poll lower in importance to voters than jobs, pipelines and the economy.
With the popularity of three carbon tax fighting premiers, Doug Ford, Scott Moe and Blaine Higgs, and the impending election of a fourth, Jason Kenney, carbon taxes and climate change are losing issues for the Liberals.
But, somehow these two items remain Liberal flagship issues. They won't shut up about them!
That’s because of the power and influence environmental NGOs have over the electoral system in Canada. It's all about cash, and they have a lot of it. Sometimes single ENGOs are able to out-fundraise major political parties. My guest this evening has all the details.
Joining me tonight to discuss her recent report exposing the enormous sums of money ENGOs have to steer politics in Canada is Michelle Stirling, communications manager for Friends of Science.