How Trudeau Is Screwing Over the Generation That Got Him Ele

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How Trudeau Is Screwing Over the Generation That Got Him Elected

[ https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2016/12/28/T ... ign=281216 ]

He thinks he can expand fossil fuels and keep young voters. He’s wrong.

By Geoff Dembicki , | TheTyee.ca December 28, 2016

Geoff Dembicki reports for The Tyee. His work also appears in Vice, Foreign Policy and the New York Times, and his book, Are We Screwed? How a New Generation is Fighting to Survive Climate Change, will be published internationally by Bloomsbury US in 2017.

Let’s get something straight. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s approval of the Kinder Morgan pipeline, as well as his recent support for Keystone XL [ http://ca.reuters.com/article/idCAKBN14A1S0 ] isn’t just a rebuke to Canada’s environmental movement, dozens of First Nations and the Metro Vancouver voters who elected 15 Liberal MPs.

Trudeau has effectively said “screw you” to the generation of millennials who brought him to office. “I feel betrayed,” one young activist explained [ https://dogwoodinitiative.org/cynical-b ... -c-voters/ ]. For the rest of his time in office we won’t let him forget it.

Don’t misunderstand our anger. This isn’t just some idealistic outburst. If you’re in your 30s or younger you have a much different relationship to climate change than our leaders. Unlike them, you could be alive to see the sea level rise that swallows every coastal city on the planet. “I’m really scared,” 19-year-old UBC student Kate Hodgson told the Georgia Straight. [ http://www.straight.com/news/841011/you ... n-pipeline ]

So when Trudeau approves the $35-billion Petronas LNG project, rubber stamps Kinder Morgan and Enbridge’s Line 3 pipelines, talks about building Keystone XL now that Donald Trump is president, and then claims it’s all “integrated into our Pan-Canadian framework on fighting climate change,” people my age have every right to be angry. It’s our future he’s gambling with.

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