OTTAWA \u2014 The co-chair of the Liberal climate caucus told the National Post that he \u201cabsolutely\u201d supports Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s approach to climate change policy.<\/p>\n
\u00c9ric St-Pierre has been conspicuously avoiding interviews about the caucus that he co-created to bring climate change issues back to the forefront of the government\u2019s agenda ever since he gave an interview to Radio-Canada revealing the existence of the caucus.<\/a><\/p>\n Fresh from running a half-marathon dressed at the Parliament\u2019s Peace Tower, St-Pierre did not go unnoticed on Monday as one of Canada\u2019s most recognizable symbols.<\/p>\n He first stopped to talk about his race. He completed Ottawa\u2019s half-marathon on Sunday in his elaborate six-foot costume in just over two hours. His attire was created by a company in his Montreal riding which designs costumes for Cirque du Soleil among others.<\/p>\n Asked whether he is one of the 14 Liberal MPs who penned a letter to Carney at the end of April<\/a> to express concerns about the government\u2019s environment backsliding, he said: \u201cI won\u2019t answer that.\u201d<\/p>\n Hiding beneath his Peace Tower, he said he \u201cabsolutely\u201d supports Carney\u2019s approach to climate change policy \u2014 pointing to the government\u2019s \u201camazing\u201d strategy, its \u201cvery robust\u201d strategy on electric vehicles and the methane regulations which he said are \u201cvery good.\u201d<\/p>\n On Monday, Carney confirmed the existence of the letter which was sent before he signed an agreement with Alberta to pave the way for a new oil pipeline to the West Coast.<\/p>\n Carney said that in a \u201chealthy caucus,\u201d there is always \u201can exchange of views.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, there\u2019s 160 other members of that caucus,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to take decisions that are in the interests of the country, that reflect an agreement with the province of Alberta, the interests of British Columbia, the interests of Indigenous peoples, and also that looks at policy in its totality,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n St-Pierre said the Liberal Party of Canada is indeed a \u201cbig tent party\u201d and that with 174 MPs comes \u201ca lot of different opinions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re a very tolerant party and we\u2019ll have different opinions and different perspectives. I think that\u2019s very healthy for a political party,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n St-Pierre would not say, however, why the climate caucus was meeting that evening to discuss their different opinions on the government\u2019s environmental policies.<\/p>\n He had to run \u2014 this time, to Parliament Hill\u2019s first-ever \u201cPower House Day\u201d where MPs of different stripes participated in an all-day fitness marathon to promote a healthy lifestyle.<\/p>\n \u2014 With files from Stephanie Taylor<\/p>\n National Post Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com<\/a> and sign up for our newsletters here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA \u2014 The co-chair of the Liberal climate caucus told the National Post that he \u201cabsolutely\u201d supports Prime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[26637,26635,2754,26638,111,5430,26636],"class_list":["post-61785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mark-carney","tag-catherine-levesque","tag-caucus","tag-climate-change","tag-eric-st-pierre","tag-mark-carney","tag-national-post","tag-peace-tower"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
calevesque@postmedia.com<\/p>\n