Break In Case of Emergency

Special election coverage: The Youth Climate Corps meets party platforms (w/ Seth Klein, Alex Cool-Fergus and Juan Vargas Alba)

• Climate Emergency Unit • Episode 8

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With less than a week before the federal election, Alex Cool-Fergus from Climate Action Network Canada joins Seth Klein, Juan Vargas Alba and Doug Hamilton-Evans from the Climate Emergency Unit to break down the climate commitments in each of the major political parties' platforms. We pay special attention to what the Liberals, NDP and Greens have said about implementing a Youth Climate Corps, which could create thousands of good green jobs for young people to address the climate emergency and other crises we face.

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This episode aired on Thursday, April 24.

Credits: Produced by Doug Hamilton-Evans and Anjali Appadurai. Hosted by Doug Hamilton-Evans with guests Juan Vargas Alba and Seth Klein from the Climate Emergency Unit and Alex Cool-Fergus from Climate Action Network Canada. Music and audio editing by Anjali Appadurai. Artwork by Geoff Smith.

Doug Hamilton-Evans (00:04)
All right, hello and welcome back to Break In Case of Emergency, a podcast about mobilizing Canada for the climate crisis with audacious solutions, rooted in justice and workers' rights. I'm your host, Doug Hamilton-Evans, filling in for Erin Blondeau, and we have another special election set to see how climate action showed up in the major party platforms, which trickled in over the weekend and afterwards. With us today, I'm joined by Seth Klein, the team lead at the Climate Emergency Unit, Juan Vargas Alba, the CEU Prairies Organizer and Co-Director of the Youth Climate Corps Campaign, and Alex Cool-Fergus, National Policy Manager at the Climate Action Network Canada. Welcome all. ⁓ So, to get us going, to start us off, I'd love to just do a round and get your analysis of each party's commitments or lack thereof to climate action in these platforms. Although I don't feel we need to keep this completely limited to climate.

But let's do general thoughts first and then we can dig into some of the commitments towards a youth climate core, which is a campaign near and dear to all of our hearts after that. So Alex, would you mind giving us sort of a general overview to start us off?

Alex Cool-Fergus (01:15)
Yeah, for sure. mean, there's a lot there. First, I want to say I'm happy that we can actually talk about the platforms at this point of the election. There are five days left. And yesterday, the Conservatives released their platform and they were the last party to do so pretty disappointing that it took so long, but we are here and we have what we have. So let's do with what we can. I think the really, I mean, these are really quite varied platforms in terms of the way that they address the climate crisis or don't address them. And so I don't think it's going to be a surprise to anyone that the Green Party, the Bloc Québécois and the NDP were very strong in terms of climate. And so it was really clear that they've chosen the path that they want to take, is addressing the climate ⁓ for the crisis, or rather addressing the crisis as it should be addressed to a great extent, although of course they can always go further. Really committing to tying the affordability crisis with the climate crisis and the housing crisis, which as we know are all very intertwined. And so they were all pretty solid with regards to that.

And to be fair, think the liberals also kind of got that message. And so there wasn't necessarily a like, this is what we're going to do for climate. was more like climate was kind of woven into different pieces of all of those platforms. And that was really good to see because I think for a really long time, parties have felt like they needed to have like an environment and climate part of their platform, but it wasn't necessarily integrated into other pieces that definitely have a climate impact. So those were some of the like the really high level good stuff.

⁓ With regards to things that were not so great, ⁓ let's start with the liberals that really have an advance in the polls, and so we can expect that they would be forming the next government. ⁓ Their platform is...like kind of like a buffet where it's like there's all of the above so you can choose. And I think that, you know, for me reading through this and being somebody who really cares about climate and the energy transition, I was like, hey, this is cool. Like there's some there's some good language here, right? Like they talked about the electricity grid as a big nation building project. They did not mention the word pipelines, which I think is intentional. ⁓ They talk a lot, ⁓ actually a lot more than I expected about like Indigenous ownership and about making sure that Indigenous nations are protected but are also able to help adapt their own territory ⁓ to climate issues and ⁓ natural disasters. There was stuff about transit, there's stuff about like all sorts of different pieces that I agree with, but I'm pretty sure that like if I give it to my uncle who is like pro-pipeline and like pro-car culture that he'll also find a lot to be happy about, right? So there's like kind of this schmorgasbord of like "you can have whatever you want". And so I think that with regards to the Liberals, they need to continue to be pushed further so that they are doing more of the good and a lot less of the bad because there's definitely a potential there for both to happen. The NDP had some really, I find really exciting and transformational stuff, especially for me with regards to housing and the housing crisis. I really, really liked their commitment to retrofitting homes and making sure that people who are low income are the ones who are the first beneficiaries of any kind of public money that's being spent on home retrofits and on the phase out of fossil fuels ⁓ in housing, which we know is a huge, huge burden in terms of costs, but also in terms of well-being. If you're not able to properly heat or cool your home, that's really dangerous in some cases.

So I really appreciated that. I won't talk about the Youth Climate Corps too much, because I know we're going to get into that in a moment. ⁓ But I very much appreciated that. ⁓ then both the Liberals and the NDP were also strong with regards to like...EVs, maintaining the EV availability standard and making sure that Made in Canada EVs are protected ⁓ and are promoted. So bringing back funding for EV purchasing, especially those that have Canadian components. And I thought that that was a good way of kind of addressing the Trump tariffs and the impacts that they're having on communities, especially in Southern Ontario. So that was good. And then on nature, parties again like committing to some some good stuff. Nature is not like the area that I focus on the most and so from my like non-super expertise I would say that I there was a lot there that I thought was was good and useful on on protecting water and making sure that natural infrastructure is used, for example, to protect from wildfires and floods, and so that was good. Yeah, so those are kind of like the good pieces. I don't know if you want me to dig into the really bad stuff, because I'm happy to do that, but I can also let someone else speak. ⁓

Seth Klein (06:50)
Well, Seth here, I'll jump in. mean, first of all, with respect to the liberals, I agree with what Alex just said. ⁓ know, Alex's description of it as of a buffet is very, very kind, euphemistic term for it. ⁓ Absolutely. All it's classic liberal, all the above. ⁓ John Woodside at the National Observer described it as a Rorschach test. ⁓ Whatever, you know, something for everyone and a coherent plan for no one. ⁓

⁓ But there is good stuff there ⁓ in terms of some of the building that we need to see. ⁓ And it shares with the NDP commitment to inter-permanential grid upgrades and real plan. I do think that the NDP climate plan is modestly stronger. Like Alex, I like the focus on ⁓ retrofits for lower income families. And it's ambitious. They're talking about two million households and then additional supports for a million more. But for the two million lower income households, it's a move away from offering rebates and incentives to just getting it done, which I like. And the other distinguishing thing about the NDP platform is that it speaks to inequality in a way that the liberal and certainly conservatives don't. particularly on the tax fairness side. So the climate movement has for a long time now been saying we need a windfall profits tax. That's in the NDP platform, as is a quite ambitious wealth tax that they estimate would raise around 20 to 25 billion dollars a year ⁓ with a tax on net wealth of 10 million and up. Just to say about the conservatives, I mean, at least they're telling us who they are. ⁓ There is no climate plan in the conservative platform. It really simply says what they would eliminate. And again, they were never just about axing the carbon tax on consumers. The industrial carbon tax, the zero emission vehicle regulations, the clean electricity ⁓ mandate.

The Clean Fuels Standard, everything, everything is out the window. We go years backwards on climate with this plan. And really instead, they just lay out all of the ways in which they seek to expedite and expand the extraction of fossil fuels.

Doug Hamilton-Evans (09:33)
One question I have about sort of the liberal platform, you know, they have a commitment to be an energy superpower for both clean and conventional energy, sort of this discussion of like the buffet that they're offering. For the audience, can you have it both ways? Can we keep doing pipelines and fossil fuel projects and also be clean energy superpowers? Can we really just simplify this for everyone listening?

Alex Cool-Fergus (09:58)
I mean, like, let's, yeah, that's a great question. And I think that that's a really legitimate question that a lot of people are asking themselves, right? Because there's a lot ⁓ of talk about us being like super clean and super good and super nice. And Canadians love to believe that we're the best and the most polite and friendly. So we don't want to think that what we're doing is actually really harmful. And I think that that's something that is common to a lot of people when you look at the polls about like, what do people want politicians to be caring about?

People really sincerely want politicians to be caring about our energy and the impact that we're having on nature and the environment and climate. So this is definitely something that your average person on the street would definitely care about, they're not necessarily hearing, or rather they're hearing the good thing, but they're not necessarily seeing that change happen at a political level. So can we be an energy superpower? Yeah, totally, 100 % we can.

requires electrification and that requires clean electricity. So not electricity generated by natural gas. ⁓ And that means that we have to be relying on things that actually make sense. And so there are very clearly proven technologies that can help us become a clean energy superpower. And part of what we could be doing is instead of selling our energy around the world, be it hydrogen, LNG, or oil, we could be selling our expertise or rather sharing our expertise with countries around the world that want to get into renewables, for example. We have an enormous amount of expertise here in Quebec with Hydro-Québec. We also have expertise in BC and in Manitoba with regards to hydro. There's more and more expertise being developed through Indigenous nations as they are taking back control over energy generation and electricity generation. they're, you know, I know that organizations like Indigenous Clean Energy are exporting that kind of expertise to other Indigenous peoples around the world. We know more and more about tidal energy. We know more and more about solar. Geothermal. These are all different ways that Canada could definitely become an energy superpower, but that would not...be possible if governments continue to invest as heavily in oil and gas as they have been over the past 10 years. And it's been completely outrageous, the amount of money that's been wasted on...

I mean, obviously on the really big ticket items like the Trans Mountain Pipeline, which cost somewhere between 30 and 40 billion dollars when you consider all things, that's a lot of money that we could have been using to create a grid across the country or to make sure that there are heat pumps in every home that keep people safe. But then there's also other kind of weird dead ends that we've gone into as a country like hydrogen, right, which really truly does not make sense ⁓ in terms of the economic feasibility of it or even like the potential for it to displace anything. LNG is another one that's like completely bonkers when you look at the math and the actual science behind it. ⁓ We're using enormous amounts of electricity in places like BC ⁓ to to clean up LNG, which is just natural gas. ⁓ You know, like that doesn't make sense. That's electricity that we should be using to power homes and to make sure that people are well. ⁓

So we have to stop with this nonsense ⁓ and to go back to the platforms like the...I think that like the most concerning thing that I saw in any of the platforms actually for me, because of like how possibly ridiculous it would be is the focus on carbon capture and storage and the liberal platform, which is again, like an unproven technology. It's been decades and decades that governments in Canada of both stripes, like liberal and conservative have said that we should be a CCS superpower, that we should, you know, that we are like experts this and blah blah blah. I mean it's not hard to be experts in this. I'm an expert in unicorn tears. It simply doesn't work and exist. ⁓ So yeah, it's easy to say that but ultimately there is no project at scale that works and that and especially that works in a like...cost-effective manner. And so again this is something that just like it just needs to be nipped in the bud because it's so ridiculous we keep hearing about it every election it comes back as like some kind of magical rainbow solution. It's not real folks so so don't believe in it. It's all hype and and nothing real.

Seth Klein (14:47)
Yeah, kudos to ⁓ Yves Blanchette actually from the Bloc Québécois because he was the one in the debates who named it the carbon capture and storage as a fairy tale. And to directly answer your question, Doug, no, we can't have it both ways. We can't both continue to extract fossil fuels and be serious about climate. ⁓ Oil and gas is our largest source of emissions, more than transportation, more than buildings, more than agriculture. And that's only counting our production emissions. It's not counting all of the greenhouse gas emissions, all the carbon pollution, when that oil and gas actually gets to where it's going in the market and gets burned. If you count all those emissions, it's more than double again our domestic emissions. So you can't square this circle.

Doug Hamilton-Evans (15:39)
I'm very excited to talk about the Youth Climate Corps, just wanted to hold a bit of space if we wanted to talk about the Greens or the Bloc Quebecois platform and its bid on climate.

Alex Cool-Fergus (15:51)
I mean, like, we can. Definitely like they're the two stronger ones. Unfortunately, like they're not the ones that have made the biggest splash because well, for the Greens, I have to say, the costing is very vague. And so it's not as credible as the other the other parties. And of course, the Bloc Québécois is really sticking up for Quebec, but not necessarily thinking about what are transformational policies that would have an impact across Canada.

So they both have their, you know, the parts that they're overlooking. I think more seriously though, we should probably be thinking about the conservative ⁓ platform, which has really done a full 180 from the Erin O'Toole days, which I cannot believe I'm saying, but like I'm looking on with fondness at this point where they actually believed in some kind of ⁓policies to sort of address the climate crisis. And now it's just like a 1984 kind of version of that where it's just like, yeah, totally, we're going to reduce emissions by investing heavily in oil and gas and kind of making up these cost savings that would come from repealing some really, really crucial policies, some of which are not even implemented yet, which the conservatives claim is costing the economy billions of dollars. And not only are they talking about repealing these essential policies, but they're projecting the use of the money that's so-called saved from cutting these life-saving policies to cover more cuts and really, really deep austerity across the country in a whole bunch of other different areas. And that's something that's incredibly concerning to me because I think it demonstrates the extent to which the conservatives are anti-climate at this point. so pretty much anything that would reduce emissions or anything that would transition us away from any fossil fuels is completely looked down upon. And it's become a lot more of a culture war kind of thing where we can't even agree on the simple, really basic stuff that basically keeps my kids from having asthma or ensures that people have access to good drinking water or green spaces or able to play soccer outside in the summertime. this is a really big gap that I think we're going to need to bridge post-election. This is not going to go away. This is not something that's just a little bit of a blip. ⁓ We see it happening in the United States.

We're definitely seeing it happen here in Canada. We know that the Conservative Party is very, very close to the fossil fuel industry, and they've been parroting a lot of what the industry has been asking for in the past, which is mostly just deregulation and massive investments ⁓ of taxpayer dollars into their pipe dreams. And I think we have to, yeah, we have to take stock of that. And we have to have some kind of a response as a climate movement post-election to ensure that these ideas do not gain any ground in the country, because we've already seen that this election has been way worse on climate and energy than recent elections have been. And we can't afford any more backsliding. We don't have that time. We don't have the luxury ⁓ of waiting around hoping that things get better by themselves. And so we do really need to address this climate denialism, is more and more active and more and more harmful.

Doug Hamilton-Evans (19:46)
I saw from the Carbon Brief, they did some analysis that a conservative election win could add 800 million tons to Canada's emissions by 2035, which we or the whole world can't afford. ⁓ And last week, we interviewed Geoff Dembicki sort of on this global right wing tie between ⁓ anti-climate and sort of anti-woke or a real ⁓ national network ⁓ crusade for this. So.

We did mention and we've been holding back on this, but the Youth Climate Corps showed up in several party platforms or in follow-up announcements over the weekend into this week. ⁓ Juan, before we dig into it, can you kind of give us an overview of what our vision for the Youth Climate Corps is just so all of our listeners know what we're talking about?

Juan Vargas Alba (20:36)
Yeah, I've been waiting in the wings to kind of lock in on this because it's the only part of the platforms that I've actually looked at. ⁓ Yeah, so the grand vision for the Youth Climate Corps, and we really do mean grand in large part because that's what this moment requires of us, is for an investment of an initial billion dollars into a new federal program that would start with unemployment of 20,000 young people across the country. But because one of the really key principles of the campaign is that you don't turn any help away, that 20,000 jobs is only meant to grow. So we say commit a billion in the first year, create the program, hire the people, and then each subsequent year grow by the amount of people that are applying to the program. It's that simple. It's that large because it has to be. Otherwise it's relatively meaningless with regards to the climate impact. And ⁓ it also kind of includes the larger pieces around what is the equity piece of this look like, what does the justice piece of this look like? So of course those are jobs that need to be full time, they need to be well paid, livable wages across the country. Those are jobs that should offer people the opportunity to gain benefits, gain education, whether it be in the trades, whether it be in university, after they're done with the program, which should last on average at least two years for the majority of placements. And it should really...put in lot of effort to ensure that there's larger participation from historically marginalized communities. And we, again, take a pretty big wide look at that, right? Like not just communities of color, not just indigenous communities, but also people with disabilities, right? Also ⁓ newcomers, right? Like we, in a moment like this where we need all the help we can get, there's no reason to turn in to help away. There's so much work to be done. There just isn't the jobs.

And so that's really been our vision. That's really been the demand to actually match this moment, match the level of work that we need to do and create the program to get it done.

Doug Hamilton-Evans (22:37)
Thank you. ⁓ So now that we sort of have this grand vision of the Youth Climate Corps in our minds, ⁓ what did the liberals, the NDP, and the Greens commit to in their platforms or statements? And sort of how does it stack up against the speed and the scale and the ambition of the program that we're asking for?

Juan Vargas Alba (22:55)
Yeah, okay, so I know we kind of want to start with the Liberals, but I'm actually going to start with the NDP for a really important reason. ⁓ So, Doug, you kind of said it, the Liberals, the NDP, and the Greens all have a Youth Climate Corps in their platforms. This isn't the first time that a Youth Climate Corps has been in the platforms. In 2021, the NDP ran, quote unquote ran, I think it was more of walk on the Youth Climate Corps. And I say that because it was, It was in there, but it wasn't really in there. It was incredibly inconsistent. At one point they called it civilian climate core. At one point they call it just a climate core. ⁓ And so not only did it not make a splash back then, ⁓ it wasn't costed, right? Like there was no conversation on what this overall looked like and what this needed to look like. But I do give them credit, obviously because that work has been in the platforms before. It's looking.

Very different now, but they're very different reasons. So it's not actually in the platform, ⁓ but yesterday on Earth Day, Laurel Collins through the federal campaign put out a large statement for Earth Day and I'm going to read it, part of it at least. You can find that on their website. So she writes that young people are on the front lines of the climate crisis. New Democrats know their commitment to climate action deserves more than words. It demands investment.

That's why will launch a $500 million use climate core to train and employ thousands of young people in climate emergency response, community resilience, and renewable energy projects around the country. Maybe I'll leave it at that. I really encourage people to go and read the larger kind of statement that's on the NDP website. ⁓ But I'll say that and then I'm going to go on to liberals and the greens and then we'll talk a little bit about how we're feeling, how we're responding to these commitments.

The Liberals, in their platform, ⁓ on the section on youth, have a paragraph that says that they will establish a youth climate core pilot which will provide paid skills training for young Canadians to quickly respond to climate emergencies, support recovery, and strengthen resilience in communities across the country. This is our moment to act boldly, prepare for the emergencies we know are coming, and empower the next generation to lead the fight for our future. So that's our platform.

They do have a separate financial and costing plan where they then match that grandiose language with a commitment of $28 million a year over two years to, to appellate. listen, I got thoughts, but, let's come back to those. ⁓ okay. I'm going to briefly touch on the greens cause there's very long. And again, I really recommend people to go, go and read this on the green party platform. It's on page 80 and it continues for like at least that whole page. But the Youth Climate Corps commitment in the Green Party platform ⁓ is a really strongly worded commitment to quote unquote, launch a Youth Climate Corps employing tens of thousands of young Canadians in ecosystem restoration and conservation projects, wildfire prevention and other ecology based climate resilience strategies. They then kind of go on to like explain what are the few principles that would drive the kind of work that they would do.

⁓ what kind of communities are prioritized, what kind of leadership, particularly indigenous leadership is prioritized. ⁓ It's really good. ⁓ It kind of really echoes a lot of the language of the platform, but unlike the other two commitments, which are shorter, there is no costing. They just say tens of thousands. So it's a little bit of ⁓ this, a little bit of that, all across those three kind of commitments, ⁓ but it's certainly a lot more than we're used to. And obviously that's a huge testament to the work that's been done by the campaign over the last three years, but even more so perhaps to a lot of the people that have been really pushing to make this happen on the inside. People within the Liberals, people within the ND, people within the Greens. Obviously we know that there's different degrees of pushes and pulls within those parties and being able to work together or being able to even just like put it out there for people to pick up within their parties has been a really key part of why we got this here. I'll tell you how I'm feeling. 

Let me start out with the NDP. ⁓ So again, huge difference between last time and this time. The NDP, of course, of the three parties has the largest financial commitment to the Youth Climate Corps. I mean, they've been working on it for the longest, even before the election period. Obviously content with...500 million dollars, it's half of what we're asking for and so we know that you know there's gonna be a need to push for more and more funding for program like this because again we don't just ask for this funding because it matches the moment we don't just ask for this funding because it is as big as it needs to be we also just ask for this funding because we know that's the amount of people that are gonna ask for it right we know that demand is there why would you go why would you go low when we go high right why would you go why would you like realistically give us such a low number when we know that there are honestly millions of young people in this country who are ready to be part of this kind of large mobilization. That is simply just, I would say, completely missing out on an opportunity to build something great that will protect people, that will protect their communities, that will employ hundreds of thousands. But, you know, politics is what happens between elections, right? So we'll see what happens after election day, the platform is strong. We know obviously as Seth mentioned, are happy to see a lot of the commitments around tax equity. And when people ask us how this gets paid, one fall profits tax, right? Stop subsidizing fossil fuels, ⁓ the wealth tax. Those are pieces that we're really excited about. And that I would say is what I have to say about the NDP platform, right? That the youth climate core within the NDP platform is that it's good. ⁓can be stronger, ⁓ it should meet our demands, and it is the best one of the three. Let me leave the liberals for last. ⁓ The Green platform, of course, as Alex mentioned, the Greens are incredibly strong on climate. I I hope they would be. ⁓ And they have kind of some other large prioritizations that really align themselves with the principles of the Youth Climate Corps campaign.

So those principles are good green jobs for all, center indigenous knowledge and sovereignty, ⁓ prioritize local needs and priorities, I'm getting them wrong, ⁓ as well as make it big, right? We want a program that builds a fossil fuel free future and a program that's rooted in injustice. And so when you look at the green platform, that's the one that most closely aligns with the principles that we've put forward. ⁓

And of course they focus a lot more, kind of add the piece around fair wages, career development pathways, around indigenous leadership that we think are really central to be focused on. Again, it's not costed, but the fact that the platform itself speaks to employing tens of thousands of people, ⁓ I would say then of course rivals the kind of funding that we're asking for because through our calculations 20,000 is around a billion, including of course also setting up the program and not including the kind of commitments that we think provinces should be including to set up youth climate cores more locally. So, you know, again, a little bit of this, a little bit of that. It's something to be very proud of. And I think it's incredibly well written. And that part is just nagging on me, right? Like I want to see how much you think we should be spending on this to actually make this happen.

Um, okay. The liberal response to the youth climate court. It's good. It's good that it's in there, right? Like I said, it's, it's a testament to the incredible amount of work that's been done outside and inside of the party to get it in there. Um, it doesn't match the tone, right? To say $28 million a year over two years, doesn't just match the tone of

This is a program, know, this is our quote unquote, this is our moment to act boldly, prepare for the emergency we know are coming, empower the next generation to lead the fight for our future. It also just doesn't match the tone that Mark Carney is setting during this election, right? If he's talking about we need to build hundreds of thousands of homes, if he's talking about we need to act at a speed like never before to meet the crises that we're dealing with, whether it's climate, housing, Trump. Listen, it's not matching, right?

It's not the same. And so as good as it is to see it in here, the lack of funding is a little bit unsatisfactory. ⁓ And it's easy to see that the attempt here is to say, let's put in $20 million a year and then we'll grow with demand. ⁓ It kind of reminds me like when I try it, when I want to host an event, I put out less chairs than I think I need so that when more people show up, I'm like, who would have thought more chairs? Let's bring them out. Let's bring them out. This is exactly what they're doing to us, right? Like they are going to be more than satisfied when they put out a program that commits $28 million a year. And immediately they realize that they've completely, completely under budgeted for the amount of demand that exists for this program. And I think that that's unfortunate because it's not setting themselves up to actually succeed.

add the speed and scale that they need for them to go back and immediately scramble and say, what are we going to do with these 20,000 young people who actually don't have a place to apply right now? $20 million would maybe cover 500 people applying for a program, which is the size of an elementary school, right? Like that is insufficient. It doesn't match the crisis. ⁓ and listen, I'm, I'm out, I'm just pulling out like rhetoric and, ⁓

like references from everywhere, but there's, keep referencing it. There's the scene in the movie, My Cousin Vinny, ⁓ where Joe Pesci talks about the judge being more than satisfied about expertise ⁓ in automotives. I have no expertise in automotives, but I'm sure that the liberals are going to be more than satisfied when they realize how many people are waiting to apply to this program. ⁓ And so listen, the surprise is going to be more theirs and it'll be ours.

We'll just have to say we told you so, but I'm happy that it's in there. I'm very happy that it's in there.

Doug Hamilton-Evans (34:10)
⁓ Thank you Juan for that incredible analysis. You know who knows about automobiles, Marissa Tomei's character in My Cousin Vinny, taking the stand as an expert witness. Canrack and CEU will have a statement out on this in a background that everyone can read up on, but please Seth or Alex, do you have anything to add to Juan's expert analysis?

Alex Cool-Fergus (34:35)
I I just wish I could do as good an accent as you, but you know, I'll work on that one for next time. I fully agree with your analysis, Juan, and the one thing that I would add is just like how much of a testament to the young people who've been standing up and fighting for this for so many years. And I think that this is really exciting to see three major political parties in Canada all endorse this idea. So like, yeah, nobody meets the scope that we know is needed and that is 100 % clear. But I really wanted to shout out to the young folks, including the civil society people, the CEU. I I wanna shout out specifically to my colleague, Malaika, who was an intern with us last summer and really took this project and ran with it. But also to the youth branches of the different political parties that did endorse this ultimately, right? So like to Jayden, to Liam, to Armaan, ⁓ congrats and like really, really great work. And I think that it shows us what we can do when we put our minds to it. And so this is not the last that folks are going to be hearing about the the youth climate core. I think that it can only grow from here really. And I know that what we are planning to do after the election is to push harder for this to be included in a federal budget, no matter who forms government that this is included in the federal budget and that it is amped up. ⁓ Because as you were saying, like, there is going to be so much demand, like just like judging from like the questions that I get in my LinkedIn ⁓ inbox, or it's all these young people who are like, hey, I really care. I'm really, I really am passionate about about doing something for the climate. And I want to have a job that's meaningful. And I really want to I want to contribute to my community. Like, how do I do it? Right now, I don't really have a place where I can send them. And I find that so sad because it's just like, they're falling between the cracks like they're there they're showing up they want to do more but there is no one-stop shop where they can go and be guaranteed really important work with really good living wages so that they can do that stuff so I mean, as Bushra says, and I know that she's off campaigning, so hey Bushra, if you're listening. But the question is not if we get a youth climate corps, it's when are we going to get a youth climate corps? And I've never felt that we've been so close to achieving this goal. So huge shout out to everyone.

Seth Klein (37:06)
Yeah, really. I don't have any analysis to add to what's been said by Juan, but likewise, super gratifying that the campaign has landed and found its way into three of the platforms. The call's been heeded and now the challenge post-election for all of us is going to be to ramp up the pressure to see this thing increase in scale and in scope. And in doing that, you know, reality and the world is going to be helping us because as the not only the climate crisis intensifies and escalates, but also in the context of the threat from Trump, I think we are going to quickly find that the youth climate core is an idea purpose built for this moment. You know, this invitation to young people to find shared purpose. mobilize in our collective defense. And as we deal with the repercussions of the Trump attacks, you know, it's going to be young people who so often are the last hired, first fired, who are going to be facing rising unemployment and the youth climate corps that trains them up in the work that's needed to de-link us from the US and from fossil fuels. are going to, the new prime minister is going to quickly find that it is exactly the program we need for this moment. on a much grander scale.

Doug Hamilton-Evans (38:36)
Thanks Seth, I think on that note, that probably covers it. Sounds like a podcast to me. Thank you all for joining us. Seth, Juan, Alex, that was great. Thanks for everyone for listening.

Juan Vargas Alba (38:47)
Let me roll out a quick red carpet for what people can do next, which is ⁓ sign up for our May 7th election debrief. ⁓ You know, no matter what government we're dealing with, whether it's a majority government, whether it's a minority government, like Alex said, it's not about what it's not about if we get a youth climate corps, it's about when we get a youth climate corps. And this moment in the platforms shows so clearly that the victory that we've been fighting for for over three years is that much closer and I want to say it serious we're going to win this this year and so if you want to be part of that if you're if you're still listening to us thank you if you're still listening to us and are really excited about what comes next go to the good green jobs for all website I it'll show up for you it will find you in the same way that you will find it please sign up for a call on May 7th ⁓ and I hope to see you there I promise I won't do any accents

Alex Cool-Fergus (39:45)
And don't forget to vote also if you haven't already. Guys, there's three parties you can vote for who care about the Youth Climate Corps.

Doug Hamilton-Evans (39:52)
Don't forget. day,

Monday, April 28. ⁓ And we will be back for post-election analysis after that. We'll also be putting the links to everything we mentioned into the show notes. ⁓ Kudos to all the organizers, all the people within and outside who made this happen, and the people on this call. And if you liked what you heard, please share this podcast with a friend. Smash that like button. Leave us a review. Subscribe to hear more. Until next time, goodbye.