Good Morning,
I’m deeply moved by how our community has rallied behind Canada’s National Observer. I am so grateful for your contributions to the incredible $108,000 we have raised to accelerate our Canadian climate reporting in 2025.
However, we are still short of our $150,000 goal and the stakes are too high for us to scale back our efforts to fund our 2025 coverage. I am not ready to throw in the towel just yet.
That’s why, with your encouragement, I am extending the campaign to January 11th to help us cross the finish line.
The outpouring of support in our inbox echoes a common concern: as newsrooms across Canada shrink or close, who will scrutinize climate promises in this crucial election year? Who will track the decisions shaping our planet's future?
This past year alone, we've watched journalism gaps widen, leaving greenwashing and powerful fossil fuel interests increasingly unchecked. Canada cannot afford these blindspots during a federal election year when voters need clear, factual reporting on climate commitments that will impact generations.
Without full funding, we’ll have to scale back our coverage when Canadians need it most — fewer investigations into corporate emissions, reduced analysis of policy, and limited reporting from communities facing climate impacts.
To maintain our essential climate coverage, we must raise the remaining $42,000 for our reporting budget by January 11th. Can we count on your donation today?
Your financial support will determine how many climate stories we can tell in 2025. Thank you for standing with independent journalism when it matters most.
With deepest gratitude and determination,
Tim Lam
TOP STORY
There’s a perception that B.C. is a climate leader within Canada, possibly because it scores high on the clean electricity front due to its wealth of hydro. But the truth comes out when you dig a bit deeper. Emissions have risen under successive NDP governments and are still far above 1990 levels. It wasn’t always headed this way. Under former Premier Gordon Campbell’s leadership, the province adopted climate policies that included one of the world’s first electricity mandates and a pure carbon pollution tax. Now even the consumer portion of the carbon tax is on shaky ground.
Barry Saxifrage writes
Number of the Week
MORE CNO READS
✊🏽When a bully throws their weight around, people have a choice: Roll over and cower. Or stand up and push back. U.S. President elect Donald Trump has been taking shots at Canada’s beleaguered prime minister and joking about taking over Canada. The political turmoil threatening to overturn the shaky Liberal government has seemingly rendered the country speechless, writes NDP MP Charlie Angus. “The goon in Mar-a-Lago senses weakness as he watches a wounded prime minister attempting to negotiate a dysfunctional parliament.” Angus says it’s time for parties to unite and push back against our southern neighbour, before it’s too late.
🚄Here in Canada we look to the high-speed rail network in Europe and Japan as a fabulous climate solution. What’s not to like about trains that can run on electricity produced from renewable energy and get people where they need to go almost as fast as fossil fuel powered airplanes? But in our country, with its vast distances, cost is a huge deterrent. Experts who have crunched the numbers say that in Canada, it might make more sense to speed up our existing passenger trains by separating them from cargo trains, which take precedence and slow down travel. Improving public transit service in destination cities would also make intercity train travel more attractive.
Julia Stratton reports
🛣️ We know that climate change causes extreme weather events and those storms and fires are set to take a huge toll on our vital roads, bridges and train routes. A new Senate committee report warns that we are not ready to deal with the damage that stands to impede billions of dollars of trade. B.C. already got a taste of what’s to come during the 2021 atmospheric river that caused landslides and flooding that cut off Western ports from cargo. The senators examined four case studies where critical infrastructure is at risk.
Natasha Bulowski reports
👀MPs of all political stripes are calling for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step down, but for now he is not budging. There is a provision in Canada’s Reform Act to force a leadership review, but it’s up to each individual party to adopt it. So far, the Conservative Party has been the only one to adopt and exercise the provision. They used it in 2022 when former leader Erin O’Toole fell out of favour with the right wing members of his party. He lost the leadership vote to the party’s current leader Pierre Poilievre who is now riding high in public opinion polls and appears poised to win the next election. The Liberals never voted to adopt the Reform Act resolution, allowing Trudeau to hang on, possibly a bit too long.
David Moscrop writes