Althia Raj: Mark Carney is squandering the Liberals’ advantage on climate change - Toronto Star
The Carney government is bowing to industry’s will despite public concerns about potentially weakening independent environmental assessments, Althia Raj writes.
Forest fires in Northern Ontario cause poor air quality over Toronto on July 15, 2026.
Althia Raj is a national politics columnist for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @althiaraj
It’s been a brand-defining characteristic of the Liberal Party of Canada for more than a decade, a wedge issue successfully deployed against the Conservatives in four federal elections, and a useful tool to mobilize voters in Ontario, B.C. and Quebec specifically, but the Grits’ advantage on climate change is at risk of being squandered by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government.
Over the past year, Carney has scrapped the oil and gas cap, eliminated the electric vehicle mandate, and shown himself willing to override B.C.‘s long-standing oil tanker ban. In the spring, he delayed methane regulations, abandoned clean electricity regulations, and lowered industrial carbon pricing targets.
Over the summer, as forest fires raged, the prime minister announced a new West Coast pipeline backed by billions of taxpayers’ money. Then the government quietly signalled the project would be approved through a fast-track process, where politics tilts the scale over fulsome review.
