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"I think the way that we've chosen to talk about the environment has been limiting to the conversation," says @farmermegzz, a grain farmer in Saskatchewan I chatted with for my article taking a closer look at the rural/urban divide in Canadian politics. https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/11/05/analysis/density-matters-clear-divide-between-urban-and-rural-canadian-voters
She and other farmers and agriculture advocates told me Ottawa just doesn’t understand what they do out there on the vast expanses of land that feed us, nor seem to care that they pay a disproportionate price for federal climate policy.
It’s a disconnect with a problematic real-world outcome — a clear divide between urban and suburban Canadians that re-elected Justin Trudeau on the one hand, and rural voters who were ignored on the campaign trail and got him and his Liberal government anyway on the other.
The Conservatives won 121 ridings with an average density of 423 people per square kilometre on Oct. 21. The Liberals won 157 ridings with an average density of more than 2,000 people per square kilometre.
Here's a graphical representation of that:
Here's a graphical representation of that:
In other words, those chunks of shorter blue more to the right of the chart represent much larger areas of land than the taller red and orange ones to the left.
Context matters. Climate change exacerbates the pinching costs imposed on farmers by Ottawa's efforts to contain it.
See @ottawacarl about SK's Moe calling for carbon-tax amnesty after heavy rains meant soggy grain and heavier use of drying machines. https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/11/13/news/premier-scott-moe-wants-carbon-tax-amnesty-farmers-stuck-soggy-grain
See @ottawacarl about SK's Moe calling for carbon-tax amnesty after heavy rains meant soggy grain and heavier use of drying machines. https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/11/13/news/premier-scott-moe-wants-carbon-tax-amnesty-farmers-stuck-soggy-grain
So what can we learn from all this?
For @janerabinowicz from @weseedchangeorg, the lesson was two-fold.
"The Liberals can't afford to ignore the Prairies," the head of the Ottawa-based sustainable farming NGO said. "And the Conservatives can't ignore climate change."
/fin
For @janerabinowicz from @weseedchangeorg, the lesson was two-fold.
"The Liberals can't afford to ignore the Prairies," the head of the Ottawa-based sustainable farming NGO said. "And the Conservatives can't ignore climate change."
/fin
