The Justin Trudeau era is officially over

Steven Guilbeault’s departure from Mark Carney’s Liberal Party of Canada had long felt like it was only a matter of when, not if. Last week, that moment finally arrived — and with it, an opportunity to reflect on his time in politics.

I am not as critical of Guilbeault as some people in Alberta, who seem to treat him as the oil and gas industry’s personal antichrist. That seems especially true of older columnists like Don Braid, who apparently still see ghosts of the National Energy Program lurking around every corner.

Guilbeault tried to implement ambitious climate policy at a moment where the broader political environment seemed open to it, especially after it looked like Donald Trump had been driven from public life. That window slammed shut more quickly than most people — myself included — were probably expecting. If it wasn’t for Trump’s return to elected office, Guilbeault’s handling of climate and energy issues would have contributed to a generational shellacking of the Liberal Party of Canada in the 2025 election.

But I’m not willing to give Guilbeault as many flowers as some climate-minded writers, who seem unwilling to grapple with the ways in which he failed to sell — and defend — his policies. The good news, as I write in this week’s newsletter, is that we can leave his more confrontational style in the past. There’s a better way forward, one that sets aside the largely pointless and entirely ineffective moralizing about the future and instead uses the enormous technological and economic advances in clean energy to drive the emissions reductions we need to see.

My sense — one that my friend Chris Turner clearly shares — is that the Carney government is actually, and actively, doing this right now. Time will tell whether it’s more effective than Guilbeault’s approach.