By Andrew Macdonald
In June 2021 while running for federal re-election, it was apparent that Chris d’Entremont was at odds over Conservative Party policy to suggest climate change was not a real thing.
At the time, d’Entremont was Conservative MP for West Nova, which includes the Town of Yarmouth. The riding is now called Acadie-Annapolis.
This story illustrates the MP did not see eye to eye with former Conservative leader Andrew Scheer over the party’s lack of a policy recognizing that climate change is real. D’Entremont has always described himself as a Red Tory, a member of the former Progressive Conservative element of the party.
In conversation over the many years with d’Entremont, it has been apparent he is a politico who calls a spade a spade — a straight-from-the-heart political shooter who avoids political spin-doctoring. When I speak with him, I always know where he stands.
In 2021, I had caught up to him while he was at Parliament Hill, and we chatted on a variety of issues, including growing concerns over climate change.
At its wintertime annual convention that year, the majority of Conservatives voted down a resolution that suggested climate change was a real issue.
A strong faction in the federal Conservative party believes climate change is not a real issue. In 2019, Hurricane Dorian blew through the province and toppled this majestic tree. iStock image
But after that motion was defeated — and a large faction of Western Canadian Conservatives do not believe in climate change — then party leader Erin O’Toole announced an environmental platform that called for a carbon tax, something the Liberal government was pushing, as well.
Some pundits said O’Toole had reversed his position as a leadership contender when he fought against such a carbon tax.
After d’Entremont won his West Nova seat in the 2019 federal election, becoming the only Conservative to win in Nova Scotia, he told me the Andrew Scheer campaign lacked a green environmental policy to attract central Canadians.
“I think we did not have the green plan that we had to have. People were expecting that and you can see the vote on the Green Party,” d’Entremont said then.
“We live next to the sea, so we see the effects of climate change every day. I think we are well positioned to help out in the fight against it, but in my mind we need help right now because we have infrastructure which is under threat, so we need to be able to address it,” he added.
Scheer’s policy to fight carbon taxes did not resonate in Nova Scotia because the carbon tax does not exist here, said d’Entremont.
“It was not an issue that caught any imagination here. We need a couple of more items (policies) that people (can get behind).”
In a 2021 chat with The Notebook, d’Entremont the reality of climate change here in coastal Nova Scotia.
“We have coastal flooding, we have the Grand Lakes issue (toxic lake in Halifax Regional Municipality), we have seaside erosion. Take the list of things we have that we see all the time,” he said d’Entremont.
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