Analysis & Articles

Assessing climate sincerity in the Canadian 2021 election
Policy Options ~ Mark Jaccard ~ September 3, 2021

If you want your vote to help the climate, here are the questions you need to ask
Canada’s National Observer ~ Seth Klein ~ September 9, 2021

Climate crisis and elections: An urgent time for honesty
Canada’s National Observer ~ Mark Jaccard ~ September 14, 2021

Liberal Party continues balancing act with unnecessarily vague plan on climate
CBC News ~ Jennifer Winter ~ September 10, 2021

Conservative climate plan better than before, but still full of inconsistencies
CBC News ~ Jennifer Winter ~ August 30, 2021; updated September 10, 2021

NDP climate plan long on ambition, short on substance (again)
CBC News ~ Jennifer Winter ~ September 7; updated September 10, 2021

Polimeter

Polimeter is an independent initiative developed by political scientists that tracks whether or not politicians have kept the election promises they made during the last two Parliaments (2015-2019 and 2019-present).

Here’s an example of how to use Polimeter:
~ If you want to find out how well the Liberals have lived up to their environmental pledges, choose “Justin Trudeau.”
~ Click on “View all 696 promises” on the right-hand top corner of the page.
~ Choose the “Environment” checkbox.
~ You can then choose “All Statuses” or other options such as “Kept,” “Partially Kept,” and “Broken.”

To What Extent Do Parties Fulfill Their Campaign Promises? 

This Unversité Laval paper, To What Extent Do Parties Fulfill Their Campaign Promises? (PDF), studied the fulfillment of over 600 campaign pledges made by successive governing parties between 2000 and 2014. It found that Canadian parties keep many of their campaign promises. It also found variation in the rate of fulfillment of pledges from one government to the next.  

Party Platforms on Climate Change

Tackling the climate emergency is a key issue in this federal election. Understanding each party’s climate change platforms is critical as Canadians head to the polls to determine who will lead us through the climate crisis. 

You have the power to vote for strong climate action! Find out more in this Climate Messengers Canada video.

Below are the parties’ climate change platforms, along with a helpful summary of each. The summaries are in bullet form for an easy and quick read. We have removed any parts in the summaries that criticize other parties, as well as what we felt was excessively puffed up rhetoric. 

Note: The order in which the political parties are listed in no way reflects our endorsement of one party’s platform over the others.

Liberal Party

~ Summary of Liberal Climate Change Platform

~ A Cleaner, Greener Future (PDF)  (chapter 5 of the Liberal Party’s election platform)

~ Campaign Website

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Conservative Party of Canada

~ Summary of Conservative Climate Change Platform

~ A Detailed Plan to Tackle Climate Change (PDF)  (chapter 10 of the Conservative Party’s election platform)

~ Campaign Website

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New Democratic Party

~ Summary of NDP Climate Change Platform

~ NDP Climate Change Platform (PDF)  (climate action section of the New Democratic Party’s election platform)

~ Campaign Website

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Green Party

~ Summary of Green Party Climate Change Platform

~ Green Future (PDF)  (chapter 1 of the Green Party’s election platform)

~ Campaign Website