Juno News - October 27, 2021


Trudeau appoints an environmental radical as environment minister


Episode Stats

Length

3 minutes

Words per Minute

195.49028

Word Count

630

Sentence Count

37


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 I don't usually get too excited by cabinet shuffles, but Stephen Guabeau, named as Environment and Climate Change Minister, I mean, come on.
00:00:14.500 If you thought Catherine McKenna was divisive, if you thought she was extreme that she rubbed people the wrong way, you ain't seen nothing yet.
00:00:22.800 But Stephen Guabeau, what's he going to do as Environment Minister? I don't want to speculate because I don't want to give the guy any ideas.
00:00:30.880 But there are a whole lot of people across the country, particularly in Alberta, who heard this news and, well, let's just put it mildly, they were not pleased.
00:00:40.380 First of all, Stephen Guabeau, quite controversial in his former position as Heritage Minister.
00:00:44.940 All of those nonpartisan experts, professors, and lawyers who were saying, these pieces of legislation, Bill C-10, Bill C-36, this is like internet censorship laws.
00:00:55.320 And Guabeau, he was unapologetic about them, wanting to push them through, saying, we've got to act now, we need this stuff now more than ever.
00:01:02.520 He was undeterred. He really seemed like a true believer when it came to that stuff.
00:01:06.900 But guess what? That was just his side gig. That was just something that I guess Trudeau said, hey, can you do this position for a while?
00:01:12.680 The thing he's really passionate about is environmental activism.
00:01:17.720 In fact, let's just be plain and simple, call it what it is, environmental radicalism.
00:01:22.080 Because I know you've all seen that picture of Stephen Guabeau being taken by the police.
00:01:27.740 He's in what looks like an orange jumpsuit.
00:01:30.420 And you're like, what's all that about? Is he actually a prisoner walking around in a prison yard?
00:01:34.360 Or did he escape from prison? And they got him back in and so forth.
00:01:36.880 No, that's not it at all. If you look closely, you'll see there's a little Greenpeace logo on it.
00:01:40.820 So it was the outfit that he was wearing as a Greenpeace activist, a protester, to, I guess, draw further attention to himself and what he was doing.
00:01:48.500 But he was running afoul of the law as he was doing some of those Greenpeace stunts.
00:01:53.200 And then you have that photo taken of him from a number of years ago, although still very much an adult, where the police are taking him away.
00:02:00.280 He was very much involved in some of the more radical initiatives of Greenpeace.
00:02:04.680 This guy's a true believer.
00:02:06.680 And look, if he's going to do that, he's not going to say, okay, yeah, the carbon tax, I take your point.
00:02:13.240 Maybe we don't actually need to ratchet it up.
00:02:15.880 Maybe we don't need to escalate it.
00:02:17.500 We can pause it for now.
00:02:18.880 No.
00:02:19.680 Whatever is on the table now, whatever Catherine McKenna said, okay, the carbon tax needs to be this much.
00:02:25.360 Well, Stephen Guabeau is going to say it needs to be that much or that much.
00:02:27.900 Sure, well, the sky's the limit.
00:02:30.560 Like I said, I don't want to give him any ideas, but this is someone to watch, someone to keep an eye on.
00:02:37.040 A lot of times, cabinet ministers are just randomly assigned positions for whatever reason.
00:02:42.220 And I guess they get their marching orders from the PMO, and they're just kind of a seat filler in that situation.
00:02:48.000 When it comes to Stephen Guabeau, uh-uh, that's not what's going on here.
00:02:51.700 This guy, his heart is going to be in it.
00:02:54.100 And the thing is, the PMO and Justin Trudeau, they know that.
00:02:58.060 They know who they are getting with this guy, which tells you that whatever crazy stuff Stephen Guabeau is about to say or do
00:03:05.600 in his capacity as environment and climate change minister, well, that's the stuff that Justin Trudeau wants him to say and do.