With just days to go before Canadians vote for their next government a star Liberal candidate is leaning on his history of environmental activism to appeal to voters.
Steven Guilbeault, the founder of Equiterre and former Greenpeace Canada activist, was announced as the Liberals’ candidate in Laurier-Ste-Marie in June. He’s faced an uphill challenge to convince voters of his party’s environmental bonafides due to the controversial $4.5 billion acquisition of the Trans Mountain pipeline.
“The Liberal government has done more in the fight against climate change than any government before,” he said on Saturday. "For every dollar invested in the pipeline, fifteen have been invested in the fight against climate change."
Laurier-Ste-Marie was once the seat of former Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe and switched to the New Democratic Party in the Orange Wave of 2011. Polls show Guilbeault trailing Bloc candidate Michel Duchesne.
The Bloc has taken aim at Guilbeault: he accused Bloc leader Yves-Francois Blanchet of lying when he accused Guilbeault of supporting the construction of a controversial thermal energy power station in the early 2000s.
“I have here the paper I presented to the Bureau Audience Publique sur L’Environment at the time, which he could have found with a five minute search on the Internet, which clearly shows I was against this project,” said Guilbeault.
