Political Environmental History of the Federal Government of Canada
The overarching purpose of this timeline is to highlight that climate change is a non-partisan issue and historically, there have been contributions towards environmental protection by both the federal Conservative and Liberal parties. However, this timeline is incomplete as it only documents the settler government’s conservation efforts starting from 1887, and does not encompass the historic conservation efforts of First Peoples on this land, that is currently known as Canada. It is essential to keep in mind the decolonized history of Canada and the government’s role in taking away land from Indigenous peoples. Indigenous issues should not be partisan and should be central to the discussion surrounding climate change as well as ownership and stewardship of the land in present day Canada.
Additional references for reading on the decolonized history of Canada include: Unsettling Canada by Arthur Manuel and Grand Chief Ron Derrickson, The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America by Thomas King and Price Paid: The Fight for First Nations Survival by Bev Sellars.
The Government of Canada’s environmental action can be traced back to 1887, when Sir John A. MacDonald’s liberal-conservative government created the first federal bird sanctuary in North America, located in Saskatchewan (1). The Canada parks branch was established in 1911, under Sir Robert Borden’s conservative government (1). In 1930, the Canadian National Parks Act states that the national parks “shall be maintained and made use of so as to leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations” (8). Conservation efforts continued to grow alone until the 1960s, at which point the environment became a bigger priority to the government (1).
There are some general trends seen across different governments as they approach federal environmental action. Regardless of the environmental stance stated, governments of both parties blamed previous governments for making emissions reduction commitments that could not be met (6). There is also consistency from one government to the next to not genuinely tackle emissions reduction while giving ambitious targets to the international community (6).
Moving forward beyond 2020, it is imperative that the federal government develop a non-partisan approach to climate change that includes recognition of the country’s colonial past.
