Elderly citizens from all over Canada are making their way to Ottawa to gather with fellow seniors for a rally opposing the federal government’s intention to construct pipelines and fund fossil fuel projects.
The Seniors’ Climate Witness event kicks off on Saturday, just before Parliament’s fall session begins next week. The goal is to urge the Liberal government not to spend taxpayer money on additional pipelines and to stick to climate commitments.
“I feel that my generation really dropped the ball on environmental protection and it’s the next generations that are going to feel the impact of climate change much more than I am,” said Sue Adams, 75, from Antigonish, N. S., who is taking a train from Nova Scotia to attend the rally.
The seniors are trying their best to travel in energy-efficient ways as they head towards Ottawa. They express a strong desire to take action after witnessing climate change worsen significantly during their lives.
A group of seniors from Nova Scotia traveling together received a festive send-off before boarding the ferry in Digby, N. S., on Thursday morning.
“As you get older, you do have a sense, well, my lifetime is finite, but I care about the generations that come ahead,” said Nina Newington, whose electric car is loaded with four others for the journey to Ottawa.
“You stop only thinking in terms of your own lifetime and I think that that’s important for seniors,” she said.
A group of people gathered at the terminal for the ferry between Digby, N. S., and New Brunswick to send off the group of area seniors attending the Ottawa rally. (Josh Hoffman/CBC)
The seniors from Nova Scotia believe that the Liberal government is taking steps backward regarding environmental protection.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has discussed increasing oil and gas exports and opening new mines. Recently, he mentioned investing tens of billions into new pipelines.
“Prime Minister Carney says that in the short run, emissions will go up, but that they’ll go down later. But one of the things that we have been saying is ‘later is too late,’” Adams said.
LISTEN | Hear more about the Seniors’ Climate Caravan:
Superior Morning6:07Michael Polanyi: Climate Caravan
A group of seniors are hitting Canadian highways in electric cars this summer, heading to Ottawa to urge the federal government to invest in clean energy. We’ll hear more about the Seniors’ Climate Caravan which stopped in Thunder Bay earlier this week.
Newington pointed out that Canada shouldn’t let U. S. President Donald Trump’s ongoing tariff threats pressure us into making immediate economic decisions at a cost of significant environmental harm down the line.
“The idea that the government is going to spend our public money, $40 billion of it, on a pipeline – that seems insane to me. You know, we need to put that money into affordable clean energy, which is actually possible now,” she said.
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