A former Premier is urging Ontarians to embrace a carbon tax as a way of battling a changing climate.
Dalton McGuinty told a crowd of about 50 people at the University of Windsor on Wednesday that he believes in revenue-neutral carbon pricing (tax) and urges the public to keep pushing politicians to solve climate change, and not settle for easy answers.
He said 75 per cent of Canadians agree that climate change is real but only seven per cent are willing to vote for a carbon tax to solve it because of economic anxiety. McGuinty added that people are losing their jobs to technology and the robots are winning the race for jobs.
McGuinty said ignoring climate change is unethical and hurts our children.
"The best leaders draw upon our deep conviction to always do right by the younger generations," said McGuinty.
McGuinty said that global carbon emissions are up 2.5 times since 1960 and reminded the crowd that climate is non-partisan because there is no Liberal, NDP or Conservative thermometer.
"Humanity is not a lost cause. We do have the capacity and the will to make things better," the ex-premier said.
McGuinty said that wanting to solve climate change can get you into heaven but won’t get you into government.
"We have to do the right thing. Previous generations have always made sacrifices for the next and now it falls to us to do what we know is right," added McGuinty.
The ex-premier cited 97 per cent of scientists agree that climate change is real and offered scientific data stating that another half degree of warming will affect 1.5 billion people.
McGuinty said Canada is the 10th largest polluter in the world and can afford to do something about it because we are relatively wealthy. He added there have been no smog days in Ontario in the last five years because coal-powered plants were closed.
