If you had the power
Suzuki wants to know what you’d do in Stephen Harper’s position
David Suzuki

What would you do if you were prime minister? That’s what I want to know as I embark on a cross-country adventure to talk to Canadians about the environment.

Throughout the month of February I’ll be making stops in more than 40 communities from St. John’s to Victoria. This isn’t a book tour or a publicity tour for a television show. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time — start a conversation with Canadians about our environment, our children, our grandchildren and our future.

I believe a fundamental disconnect exists between our elected leaders and our people. Polls tell us that environmental issues such as global warming greatly concern many Canadians, yet most of our politicians offer up little more than window dressing to address these issues. It’s as if many are just hoping to lay low until this “environment thing” blows over, and then they’ll go back to ignoring it as usual.

That’s not right, and I will personally do everything I can to make sure that doesn’t happen. I want to make sure Canadians’ concerns are heard in Ottawa.

No matter what your political stripes, we all depend on a healthy environment. Brian Mulroney was recently voted Canada’s greenest prime minister, and he’s a conservative. Whether he was really interested in the environment is debatable, but he had no choice but to go green because the public demanded it.

In the late ’80s and early ’90s, environmental issues were hot. Even George H. W. Bush was elected by saying he would be an “environmental president.” Corporations and governments set up new environment departments and started going green. Recycling was all the rage.

In the public eye, the problem looked as if it was solved. People were recycling. Governments consistently talked about the importance of the environment. Corporations shined themselves to a deep green lustre. People breathed a sigh of relief and went back to their everyday lives. Unfortunately, that green lustre was only skin deep. Beneath the surface, little had changed.

As a result, we essentially went on with business as usual, and it wasn’t until Canadians actually observed global warming and the media consistently and accurately reported on it that the environment got back on government and corporate agendas.

That’s where we are now. Only this time, if we want to actually move our country toward a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable society, we have to come up with something better than cosmetic solutions.

We need real change. We need to have strong targets and timelines for our biggest polluters to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions. We need to clean up our cars, our homes and our businesses. We need to build sustainability into the bottom line.

Which of our leaders is best for this task will be decided by Canadians come election time. Until then, if you want to make our country greener and more sustainable, get involved and tell our elected leaders that it’s not good enough to just smile and nod for the cameras. Tell them that you expect more.

Canadians have the power to make a real difference and change the direction our country is heading. That’s what my tour is about. We’re calling it the If You Were Prime Minister Tour because that’s how we should all be thinking. What would you do differently if you were in change?

I want to know, and I hope to see you on the road.

Learn more about the If You Were Prime Minister Tour at www.davidsuzuki.org. The tour stops in Winnipeg on Feb. 20 at the Burton Cummings Theatre.