Poilievre’s New Gaslighting Campaign

Many Canadians may have been too preoccupied with the latest wildfire news, air quality warnings, extreme heat alerts and water consumption advisories to notice Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has a new message.

On the eve of the byelection vote he hoped would — and that ultimately did — return him to Parliament, Poilievre announced his party’s new national campaign: save the gas-powered automobile.

Specifically, Poilievre vowed to protect new sales of fully gas-powered cars and trucks beyond 2035. He promised to scrap the federal government’s long-term zero-emission vehicle mandate that is set to begin next year and spoke of dire consequences if it goes forward.

Once again, Poilievre is trying to gaslight Canadians into acting against their own interests to the benefit of a majority foreign-owned fossil fuel industry. This time, his nonsense must be stopped before it gains traction.

As part of Canada’s fight against climate change, the federal government announced the Electric Vehicle Availability Standard in late 2023. Under it, the country intends to achieve 100 per cent zero-emission vehicle sales by 2035, with targets of 20 per cent by 2026 and 60 per cent by 2030. Sedans, hatchbacks, SUVs and pickup trucks are all included in the standard, and a zero-emission vehicle is defined as battery electric, fuel-cell (which operates on hydrogen) or plug-in hybrid electric (which runs on electricity for a minimum period before transitioning to operate as a hybrid, using both liquid fuels and electricity).

In Poilievre’s framing, this plan is akin to Armageddon. The Conservative leader has warned that the standard amounts to “banning the rural way of life” and that it will “kill jobs” and “literally erase many small towns from the map.”

Of course, the real Armageddon is climate change.

The rising toll of devastation

Canadians are struggling through another consequence-filled summer brought to us by the burning of fossil fuels. Extreme heat, persistent wildfires and poor air quality are creating havoc across the country.

People are dying in Montreal. Homes are being lost in Newfoundland. Businesses are losing money on Vancouver Island. More than 130 First Nations communities have been affected by emergency events.

On Monday, the federal government cautioned that the current season of wildfires — which have already consumed an area roughly the size of New Brunswick — is set to become riskier.

It is imperative that our federal government take action, and gas-powered cars are a sensible focal point.

Road transportation accounts for the largest share of the transportation sector’s greenhouse gas emissions, which make up 28 per cent of Canada’s overall emissions, according to Statistics Canada. Meanwhile, Health Canada estimates air pollution from road vehicles causes “1,200 premature deaths and millions of cases of non-fatal health outcomes annually” for a total economic cost of $9.5 billion per year.

A switch to zero-emission vehicles not only reduces pollution; it saves consumers money. In an extensive study, Clean Energy Canada reports that the costs of owning an electric vehicle instead of a gas-powered one can be “significantly” cheaper when analyzing maintenance and mileage. The federal government estimates Canadians will save more than $36 billion in energy costs between now and 2050 as a result of the mandate.

Still, Poilievre announced that his party plans to use various “pressure campaigns” in and out of Parliament as part of its “national campaign” to get the standard scrapped.

Poilievre may have made his “save the gas-powered car” announcement during his byelection fight, but it was done in support of his campaign to survive a Conservative party leadership review in the new year. Conservative voters are the most likely skeptics of the federal government’s zero-emission vehicle standard, according to a recent opinion poll.

Already, Conservative parliamentarians such as Michelle Rempel Garner are seeking to neutralize the counter-narrative of climate change through absurd distractions such as dabbling in conspiracy theories about lockdowns or getting into mundane debates over intergovernmental forest management practices.

This, of course, is no surprise for a party and leader who ignored last summer’s wildfires to campaign in favour of a gas tax break.

Troubling signals from Liberals

Supporters of climate action should not underestimate the effectiveness of Conservative disinformation and distraction techniques.

In 2022 Poilievre launched his national leadership campaign by railing against pollution pricing, an evidence-based policy that succeeded in fighting climate change by reducing emissions and lessening income inequality through the federal carbon rebate. It was a policy that had been supported by Canadians in two national elections, and one many advocates thought had been decided.

All of this was before a mass disinformation campaign led by Poilievre and the fossil fuel industry, a delayed response by the federal government and supporters of pollution pricing and, ultimately, capitulation by Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney, who scrapped the program and the rebate in his first action.

The same scenario must be prevented from playing out again.

Unfortunately, it very well might. Even worse, the Carney Liberals may choose to obey in advance, ceding to business demands that the zero-emission vehicle standard be shelved as part of dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Indeed, Trump and the fossil fuel industry leaders who helped return him to power are seeking to destroy any climate policies or other barriers to their companies’ profits. It is why the U.S. Congress has sought to end California’s electric vehicle regulation.

California, however, is vowing to fight the Trump administration in court. Additionally, 15 other states have some form of zero-emission vehicle regulation.

The European Union and China are two other large markets that are moving forward with strong zero-emission vehicle mandates.

It is therefore disappointing that Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Mélanie Joly is reported to be reviewing Canada’s regulation following industry lobbying.

A Canadian-specific industrial policy — a strategy that has renewed importance in the Trump era — that is partially built around the government’s zero-emission vehicle mandate should not be so easily watered down.

A smarter, and fairer, option would be to reinstate an electric vehicle rebate. The current minister of environment and climate change, Julie Dabrusin, at least is promising a renewed rebate.

Fight for climate action

For Poilievre and his allies, the objective for government regulations on zero-emission vehicles is not just to delay or even weaken them, but to abandon them altogether. Consider that the dark-money-supported Fraser Institute, infamously funded in part by the oil tycoon Koch brothers, called this month for the “killing of the EV mandate.”

The op-ed by a “senior fellow” with the institute repeated erroneous themes from Poilievre’s speech, including that electric vehicles do not work in the cold. The author and Poilievre should look at the example of Norway, a cold-weather country where 82 per cent of new cars sold are electric.

Canadians who support action on climate change — and this includes progressive members of Parliament — need to communicate blunt truths and campaign with the same righteousness and joy for protecting the public good as opponents demonstrate for expanding private profit.

Advocates should not sit on defence but go on offence — spend less time online dissing trolls and debating critics and more time outside talking with strangers and organizing friends.

Poilievre’s radical opposition to the zero-emission vehicle regulations is irresponsible. The responsible thing for Canadians to do is to act on climate change, and reject Poilievre’s latest gaslighting.