It’s “hard to know” why a climate scientist and former leader of the BC Green Party would endorse John Rustad, Premier David Eby has said.
Andrew Weaver, the lead author for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that won the Nobel Peace Prize, said in a post on X last night that Rustad “is to be trusted more on the climate file than Eby.”
Eby, he said, “is clearly more concerned about politics than about people — British Columbians deserve a Premier who will be straight up with them.”
He made the remarks after the premier announced his intention to abandon BC’s carbon tax should the federal government end its legal requirement for provinces to have one place.
Eby said that, instead, he’d shift the carbon tax burden onto “big polluters,” a change similar to the one sought by the BC Greens.
When asked by KelownaNow on Friday why he thought an esteemed figure like Weaver would back Rustad to lead the province, Eby was uncertain.
He pointed instead to Rustad’s previous statements about climate change, including a comment he made to Jordan Peterson about humans being carbon-based lifeforms.
“John Rustad is proposing to ban from classrooms climate science textbooks so the kids can't learn about climate change,” he said. “And I assume Mr. Weaver's textbooks as well.
“British Columbians who are worried about climate change, they want to see action on climate change, they shouldn't have to choose between making the rent, buying groceries, getting to work and supporting action on climate change. And we're making that possible for them.”
I just got contacted by numerous #bcpoli media outlets saying that @Dave_Eby is now copying @theJagmeetSingh. What a disappointment.
— Andrew Weaver (@AJWVictoriaBC) September 12, 2024
Eby is clearly more concerned about politics than about people — British Columbians deserve a Premier who will be straight up with them.
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Both Rustad and BC Greens Leader Sonia Furstenau accused Eby of having “flip-flopped” on the carbon tax yesterday. Rustad said Eby “changes his stance whenever it suits his political needs.”
But Eby said he agrees with Furstenau on climate change, adding: “We have consistent positions on the carbon tax, that it shouldn't be on everyday British Columbians.”
The premier also discussed the need for BC to embrace green technology.
“Just in Kelowna, you've got Hexagon Purus there,” he said. “It's a company that makes engines using hydrogen, zero-emission engines – 150 new jobs with their expansion there in Kelowna.
“The economic future of our province depends on us being agile on the low-carbon future to be competitive around the world as governments move in this direction.
“And that's just not what John Rustad's offering. He's offering to tell those people, who would buy our products, like the Hexagon Purus hydrogen engine, that they're idiots. Climate change isn't real, why would you buy a hydrogen engine? And that undermines jobs and opportunity in our province for families, and I just think it's the wrong direction.”
To watch the full interview with David Eby, click here.
