Canada's Hopes for an Environmentally Friendly Federal Leadership Now Rest with Justin Trudeau

The federal Liberals officially named 41 year old Justin Trudeau as their new leader on Sunday April 14, 2013. The ruling Conservatives are telling Canadians that they have to make a choice between the economy and the environment, Trudeau believes this is a false choice.

Justin believes that the Conservative doctrine of forcing Canadians to choose between the economy and the environment is reckless and dangerous.

As he explains in his website, “Instead, it is increasingly obvious that a healthy economy is dependent on a healthy environment, and the two will thrive resiliently if we engage in responsible actions based on long-term thinking.”

Justin won the support of about 80 per cent of Liberals who gave him an overwhelming first-ballot victory, 45 years to the month after his father took the same position. Justin is the eldest son of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre E. Trudeau.

Elected on October 14th, 2008, as Member of Parliament for Papineau, Justin’s three primary policy positions involve youth, diversity and the environment.

Justin was a member of the House’s Standing Committee on the Environment and Sustainable Development. In his years before politics he worked with various environmental groups dedicated to the protection of our Canadian wilderness, supplementing his activism with graduate work in environmental geography at McGill University.

Justin has a difficult road ahead of him if he is to succeed in taking his party from its current third place standing and returning to its former glory as the country’s so-called “natural governing party.” If he is to be the next Prime Minister he will have to defeat Harper’s Conservatives and move ahead of the NDP led by Thomas Mulcair.

Despite these difficulties opinion polls suggest that the new Liberal leader could very well win an election if it were held today.