EDITORIAL: Federal Liberals playing liar’s poker on emissions

The best approach when anyone in the federal Liberal government starts talking about its targets to reduce Canada’s industrial greenhouse gas emissions is to assume no one is telling the truth.

But it also includes former environment ministers Catherine McKenna and Steven Guilbault, who kept telling Canadians the government was on track to meet Justin Trudeau’s climate targets.

Of course Dabrusin’s claim is nonsense, but so were claims by McKenna and Guilbeault that Canada was on track to meet the Trudeau government’s targets when they were environment ministers.

For the two of them to now accuse Dabrusin of doing the same thing they did – with all three of them currently at the United Nations annual global gabfest on climate change in Antalya, Turkey – is a classic case of the pot, two pots, actually, calling the kettle black.

It is hypocrisy on steroids.

What is true – as Carney has acknowledged – is that Canada will fall even further behind Trudeau’s 2030 and 2035 emission targets because he believes it is economically crucial for Canada to increase and diversify Canada’s oil and gas exports.

To achieve that Carney has made a number of policy decisions that will increase Canada’s emissions.

But the argument by McKenna and Guilbault that Canada was on track to achieve any of these targets under Trudeau is a myth.

The Liberals have been playing liar’s poker on this issue ever since they came to power in 2015.