{"id":1469,"date":"2022-12-01T20:30:04","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T20:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatenation.ca\/?p=1469"},"modified":"2022-12-01T20:41:30","modified_gmt":"2022-12-01T20:41:30","slug":"the-policy-and-opinion-gap-whos-afraid-of-canadian-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatenation.ca\/?p=1469","title":{"rendered":"The Policy and Opinion Gap: Who\u2019s Afraid of Canadian Culture?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The persisting Canadian public opinion on the environmental reflects deeper aspects of Canadian identity and can be leveraged to build awareness of Canada\u2019s actual record on the environment and advocate for more assertive climate change policy directions <\/strong><\/p>\n

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There was this time back in the day when you felt like you could just walk through an Emily Carr painting. Ahh see the honourable huers of wood and drawers of water! Those lonely and courageous folks on these rugged shores of North America\u2019s expanse. \u00a0Lawren Harris with his cartoon mountain dancing in the sunshine. The folksinger greats lamenting about loss and cold and the icy relentlessness.<\/p>\n

This is that old great white norths tuff. The Milne painting of the snowy valley, Morrisseau and the woodlands school. Even way back to the Krieghoff with the kids playing hockey on the pond.<\/p>\n

BUT WAIT!!!!<\/p>\n

These paintings that can seem to depict a way of life, a sensibility or national perspective. really fall short of the reality of who we actually are.<\/p>\n

Really, Canada is an oil extraction GIANT villain, one of the worst CO2 emitters in the world!<\/p>\n

The huge part of our whole civilization is funded directly from the nature destroying extractions industries.<\/p>\n

GAP BETWEEN PUBLIC OPINION AND PUBLIC POLICY<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a story here.\u00a0 There is a sharp tension between what Canadian opinion is concerning the environment and the reality at the economic activity level.<\/p>\n

Opinion surveys shows that Canadians overwhelmingly believe in climate action and a fossil fuel transition and yet our policy-makers continue to allow worsening emissions performance (way out of step with the rest of the world).<\/p>\n

This should help us know there\u2019s room to advocate for more climate action from our governments.<\/p>\n

WHO\u2019S AFRAID OF CANADIAN CULTURE<\/p>\n

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Who can\u2019t be taken by that provocative title of Susan Crean\u2019s piece back 1976, Who\u2019s Afraid of Canadian Culture? The piece was really put together when people had their doubts about whether or not Canadian identity was a coherent anything. If it existed or would ever amount to anything at all. Well maybe it was a bit elusive at the time to think of a unique and sustaining set of cultural values that could bind us across this big diverse, often empty-looking place called Canada. Maybe we know a bit more about this today! We can see in front of us the identity-bearing fine art, music, novel writing. There\u2019s also\u2026 well\u2026 the OPINIONS we have together about our experience and outlook.<\/p>\n

Crean\u2019s book forces the conversation a layer deeper on this \u201copinions\u201d point. Maybe about our aspirations about where we live and what we do. On the topics of climate and fossil fuels, for example, do Canadians have a particular public opinion outlook? A look at public opinion survey information can get us a picture.<\/p>\n

CANADA PUBLIC OPINION DATA<\/p>\n

There is a long string of polls that show support for government addressing Climate Change and investing in the environment.<\/p>\n

The surveys show a very large majority of Canadians are seriously worried about climate change (over 75%). \u00a0Three-quarters of us are now making the connection between extreme weather and global warming. The public is now broadly convinced that an energy transition is inevitable (71%) and is highly supportive of shifting to clean energy (81%).<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more. In the area of carbon pricing? most Canadian support it. Over 70% support carbon pricing. And for things like electric cars, over 70% support federal incentives for EVs<\/p>\n

Canadians overwhelmingly understand that the energy transition is a global phenomenon, not something we only talk about in Canada. Three-quarters believe it will be beneficial in the long term and 70% say that it\u2019s necessary \u201cwhether we like it or not.\u201d These results hold even though 59% think it will make their life more expensive. And even further to the point about what polling results ranged from 42% to 57% saying the government is not doing enough to spur a clean economy or combat climate change<\/p>\n

This would be interpreted by just about anybody as strong support on any issue. But turning this perspective on the environment into action is another thing entirely.<\/p>\n

People say they want clear action on the environment. So why are governments still allowing GROWTH in fossil fuel extraction??<\/p>\n

There is a huge gap in the business of connecting actual public opinion to actual public policy.<\/p>\n

Paul Burstein, University of Washington takes a look. He reviewed over 30 different studies to try to understand the link between policy and opinion and answer questions like, \u201cdoes public opinion actually impact on policy?\u201d and \u201cwhat is the role of special interests?\u201d<\/p>\n

The research looked across a set of studies and reviewed factors like how important certain issues were to people as well as the role of media and special interest groups.<\/p>\n

THE FINDINGS<\/p>\n

Surprisingly, the conclusions were that:<\/p>\n