Prime Minister Justin Trudeau flew over 50,000 km in the past seven weeks – all while touting the Liberal government’s plan to cap emissions in the oil and gas sector by 40%.
An investigation by the National Post revealed that of the 127,147 km Trudeau has flown since last June, 50,680 km of his travel took place in the last seven weeks alone. As the outlet notes, the total distance – in terms of burning jet fuel – is the equivalent of travelling around the world three times.
Trudeau and his team flew domestically on a fleet of bombardier Challenger 650s and internationally on a configured military jet, the CC-150 Polaris.
Out of all the flights Trudeau has taken since resuming travel after pandemic lockdowns, the longest was his 6,588 km trip from Warsaw, Poland to Ottawa on Mar. 11. His longest domestic flight was his controversial Sept. 30 vacation to Tofino. Soon after that, the prime minister embarked on a week-long trip to Europe to discuss climate change at the COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland.
As reported by True North, Canada sent the most delegates to Glasgow out of all G7 nations including host country, the UK. The Liberals have yet to reveal the cost of bringing over 300 officials and aides to the conference.
While there, Trudeau revealed his government’s oil and gas sector emissions target.
“We will limit oil and gas sector emissions today and ensure they decrease tomorrow at the speed and scale needed to reach net zero by 2050,” Trudeau told global leaders.
“This is no small task for a major oil and gas producing country. This is a big step which is absolutely necessary.”
Soon after the announcement, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney blasted Trudeau for not consulting with the province first.
“I don’t know why they would make such an announcement without consulting the province with the most oil and gas reserves in Canada,” Kenney said.
“The (federal government) has zero chance of achieving its greenhouse gas reduction goals without Alberta’s oil and gas industries. Let’s be a partner in that.”
Professor of Environmental Studies at York University Bruce Campbell called the prime minister’s jet setting one of many contradictions to Trudeau’s stance on the environment.
“(It’s) another one of those Trudeau contradictions, like when his government declared a climate emergency and then announced it was buying a pipeline, or more recently put forward its climate plan implemented in Budget 2022 and then approved an offshore oil development project despite the latest warnings from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change),” Campbell told the National Post.
