Dear Editor,
Immediately after stepping into office, [U.S.] President [Joe] Biden made bold moves in support of climate action.
Within literal hours of his inauguration, he passed executive orders to return the United States to the Paris Climate Accord, suspended all new oil and gas drilling permits on federal land, and cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline.
Biden is clearly eager to move United States forward after four years of Donald Trump’s climate denial and pro-fossil fuel agenda.
RELATED: Joe Biden has been sworn in as the 46th president of the United States
You would think this is something that our self-proclaimed climate leader of a Prime Minister would also support? Instead, Trudeau announced that he was “disappointed” by Biden’s actions, sounding very much like Trump and Jason Kenney.
RELATED: Trudeau, Biden to talk today as death of Keystone XL reverberates in Canada
Canada has an opportunity to work together with the United States to move forward on a path of climate action.
Canadian politicians need to be looking forward and delivering a better vision for the future.
The Keystone XL cancellation shows that the fossil fuel era is ending.
READ MORE: B.C. VOTES 2020 – Climate change and sustainability promises from the parties
Trudeau could mark this moment by delivering on the Just Transition Act he promised in 2019 in order to support workers who will need government action to support them through the transition to a green economy.
The climate crisis is immediate and as a country we must act like it.
Maryanne McFarlane, Maple Ridge
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