Geopolitics, Ecology and Stephen Harper’s Reinvention of Canada

Abstract

The election of the Conservative Party to power in Canada in 2006 brought with it a vision of the world that was much more competitive than previous Liberal or much earlier conservative visions. Key to all this, and the focus of this chapter, is an attempt to reinvent Canada as a player in a world of competitive geopolitics rather than as a good citizen in a shared biosphere. Foreign and domestic policy have been shaped by this new view, leading to the abrogation of the Kyoto protocol and, given the identification of Canada as an energy superpower and oil exporter, substantial attacks by the government on environmental science and regulatory processes, apparently because these might obstruct resource company projects. What is being sustained in this process is a vision of Canada antithetical to what in most parts of the world would be considered sustainable. The lessons to be learnt for sustainable transitions are many, most notably the importance of thinking carefully about conventional politics and the dangers of narrowly-cast nationalist and populist attacks on environmental policies and sustainability initiatives.