The House of Commons is back in session and more than 100 brand-new MPs are in Ottawa this week to kick off their careers on Parliament Hill.
Some of these first-time members of Parliament (MP) have climate credentials, but whether they will move the needle on climate policy depends on what roles and responsibilities they are assigned in the federal government.
Backbenchers tend to have limited influence. Some of these new MPs may be appointed to sit on federal committees, granting them power to amend proposed legislation and policies and study key issues.
A seat at the cabinet table is the most powerful position they can achieve, and Vancouver’s former “green mayor” and first-time federal MP clinched a key role.
Gregor Robertson, Liberals
Gregor Robertson, MP for Vancouver Fraserview-South Burnaby, got a seat at Prime Minister Mark Carney's cabinet table as minister of housing, infrastructure and Pacific economic development. Robertson is new to the House of Commons, but not to politics. He served as mayor of Vancouver for 10 years and was also ambassador of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy and did international climate diplomacy work with mayors and cities across the globe.
He formerly worked for a green construction technology company called Nexii and was a BC NDP MLA between 2005 and 2008.
Housing and infrastructure are both key portfolios in the fight against climate change.
It will be interesting to see how Robertson’s climate commitments are translated into policy because of Carney’s emphasis on building a lot of housing quickly, Kathryn Harrison, a professor at the University of British Columbia, said in a phone interview with Canada’s National Observer.
The building sector was responsible for about 12 per cent of Canada’s national total of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, according to the federal government’s early estimates published last December.
Residential buildings created 55.76 megatonnes of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions in 2022, according to Natural Resources Canada’s data. That is equivalent to the CO2 emissions from burning nearly 24 billion gallons of gasoline. Decarbonizing buildings can prevent lots of emissions from entering the atmosphere, but failing to do so can lock in warming for decades to come.
Patrick Bonin, Bloc Québécois
The people of Repentigny elected an environmental activist with the Bloc Québécois to replace the party’s former environment critic Monique Pauzé, who did not run for reelection. Patrick Bonin is a long-time climate activist. He has worked on climate and environment issues for more than two decades, including 12 years as a Greenpeace Canada climate and energy campaigner. In Bonin’s social media posts, he echoes party leader Yves-Francois Blanchet’s rhetoric that the Bloc says “no” to pipelines, and writes in French on social media site X that Carney and Poilievre are sticking their heads in the tar sands.
Bonin is well-known and active in the Quebec climate activism communities and someone who Caroline Brouillette, executive director of Climate Action Network Canada, has “worked very closely with,” she said in an interview with Canada’s National Observer.
“I'm really looking forward to having his voice in Parliament, especially now that the Bloc [Québécois] holds the balance of power after a campaign where they took very ambitious stances and were the voice of reason on pipelines,” Brouillette said. Bonin is perhaps one of the province’s best-known activists, second only to Steven Guilbeault, she added.
Eric St-Pierre, Liberals
Before Eric St-Pierre was elected MP for Honoré-Mercier, he spent nine years as executive director of the Trottier Family Foundation — one of Canada’s most prominent funders of projects that support climate and environmental protection. (The Trottier Foundation is one of the many foundations who've collaborated with the Institute for Sustainability, Education and Action [I-SEA] and Canada's National Observer to produce the Climate Solutions Reporting Project. Canada's National Observer retains full editorial control.)
Before he became executive director at the Trottier Foundation, which Brouillette described as “the vanguard of Canadian climate philanthropy,” St-Pierre spent three years practising environmental, energy and Indigenous law.
St-Pierre is best known for climate philanthropy, including co-founding an initiative to help cities scale-up climate solutions like making buildings more energy efficient and getting governments to match investments.
Bruce Fanjoy, Liberals
Bruce Fanjoy, an environmentalist who built a net-zero emissions home, ended Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s 20-year hold on the Carleton-area riding. Fanjoy beat Poilievre by 4,500 votes and shocked much of the political world.
Fanjoy and his wife created a social media account for the house to showcase the benefits of building climate-friendly houses and advocate for sustainability.
Fanjoy was a businessman before pursuing his dream of building a net-zero home. He hopes it gives people an example to follow and tailor to their own situations and needs, Fanjoy told Canada’s National Observer in an interview in August 2023.
At the time, he said the environment was part of what was driving him to try and unseat Poilievre, calling him “a salesman” for the oil and gas industry.
“There's no scenario for a sustainable planet that involves pouring more and more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. We have to change that,” he said.
Shannon Miedema, Liberals
Halifax’s new MP, Shannon Miedema, spearheaded the City of Halifax's climate plan in her role as director of environment and climate change there. Halifax’s climate plan, adopted in 2020, was embraced for its ambition and inclusion of a new Climate Action Tax (applied to residents’ property bills) to help buy electric vehicles and buses, construct net-zero buildings and other projects.
Miedema spent a total of 15 years working for the Halifax Regional Municipality in various environment, energy and climate-related roles. Up until she left to run for federal office, Miedema and her team were looking at new ways to use revenues from the Climate Action Tax to make infrastructure like roads more resilient to climate change.
Will Greaves, Liberals
Victoria’s new representative — Liberal MP Will Greaves — has some climate credentials. He unseated the NDP's environment and climate change critic Laurel Collins. Greaves is an associate professor at the University of Victoria with a focus on international relations, Arctic policies and climate change.
“Progressive voters, in particular, do really want assurances that climate won't be ignored or overlooked in the context of a campaign that has focused a lot on economic issues on the one hand, and I think questions of leadership and values on the other,” Greaves told Canada’s National Observer in a phone interview before election day. Greaves sees part of his role as pushing the government to incorporate climate and emission considerations into all aspects of its work “because that's what it takes to address this challenge.”
Karim Bardeesy, Liberals
Karim Bardeesy, the new MP for Taiaiako'n-Parkdale-High Park in Ontario, was involved in climate initiatives before running for election. Bardeesy spent five years on the Corporate Knights board (a Toronto-based media and research company focused on accelerating the transition to a low-carbon, sustainable economy.) The magazine reports primarily on climate change, sustainable investing and finance, and the intersection of business and climate.
Before entering federal politics, Bardeesy was a policy and politics columnist, professor, ran for provincial office and served as a senior advisor to Ontario Premiers Kathleen Wynne and Dalton McGuinty.
Anna Warwick Sears, Liberals
Anna Warwick Sears, Liberal MP for Vernon–Lake Country–Monashee, has a long history working on water governance in BC.
The Kelowna-area MP spent 18 years as executive director of the Okanagan Basin Water Board advocating for sustainable water management and all manner of water planning, science and policy.
In a 2024 interview with Kelowna Capital News, Warwick Sears identified climate change as a unique issue affecting the region, citing the impact of extreme weather on agriculture and high wildfire risk — which also impacts water reservoirs.
