The Globe and Mail - 19.10.2019

Opinion

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2019 | GLOBEANDMAIL.COM

DAVIDMILLER

Asustainablefutureis

possible.Wejustneed

tochooseit O2

EIAD HERERA

Turkey’sinvasionofSyria

anditsparallelstothe

OttomanEmpire O4

VICKYMOCHAMA

Whydoesn’ttheblackvote

mattertopoliticalleadersin

Canada? O8

MARGARET ATWOOD

Voteforthepartythat

knowstherereallyisa

climatecrisis O11

A

s a kindergarten student in

1977, I set out every morn-

ing into the vastness of

North Toronto. Having been

ditched by my older brother at

the first hill (he had a reputation

to maintain), I would join doz-

ens of other neighbourhood kids

on the migration to school.

We walked – or biked – not to

be virtuous or to make a state-

ment or to get a sticker when we

got there, but because it was the

obvious thing to do.

A generation later, this seems

like pure nostalgia. According to

Ontario’s transit agency Metro-

linx, the percentage of 11- to 13-

year-old students walking to

school within the Greater Toron-

to and Hamilton Area nearly

halved between 1986 and 2016,

while the number of kids being

driven in cars has nearly tripled.

The trend is consistent across

the country; the national non-

profit organization Participa-

ction estimates that a mere fifth

of Canadian school children now

exclusively walk or bike to

school. Cars are poised to be-

come the prime mode of school

transport.

Does it really matter? It’s just a

trip to school. Times millions of

children, times hundreds of days

a year.

At the very least, it’s a lost op-

portunity: the imposition of

adult logic – finding the fastest

wayfromAtoB–onnewcomers

to the world, who are much

more interested in the puddles,

people, plants and pretty much

everything else that exists in be-

tween.

But the en masse decision to

drive to school is also a problem.

It diminishes the functionality of

our cities (trips to school make

up a fifth of morning rush-hour

traffic in Toronto) the quality of

the air and our claim to be taking

climate change seriously. It is, in

very real terms, bad for our kids.

SCHOOL,O5

Whydidourchildrenstopwalkingtoschool?

Thejourneycreateshealthy,curiouskids–andhelpstofighttheclimatec risisfacingthenextgeneration.

Sowhyaren’tparentswalkingthewalk,andsendingtheirkidstoschooltheold-fashionedway?

NAOMI BUCK

OPINION

FÏnn—A¢[nîώÝnÏQAÓneŽ¢T ̈Ï ̈¢Ý ̈

E

lection campaigns sometimes open our eyes to realities

we’d rather not see. The current campaign, which wraps

up this weekend, has revealed a Canada fractured along

lines of geography and generations.

Quebeckers reject English Canada’s multicultural consensus.

The West is angry and estranged from the Centre. And younger,

more progressive voters resent the baby boomers’ entitlements.

A hung Parliament could deepen these divides. Neither the

Liberals nor the Conservatives appear able to win over more

than a third of Canadians.

There has never been a time when both of the two major

parties were so deeply and equally unpopular on the eve of a

federal election.

Putting together agovernment that can obtain a majority of

votes in the House on confidence measures could mean conces-

sions to the resurgent Bloc Québécois or New Democratic Party

that would leave some Canadians feeling even more estranged.

“I really believe that this election campaign, results notwith-

standing, has deepened the cleavages, broadened the gap, be-

tween regions of the country,” warns Brad Wall, the former

premier of Saskatchewan.

“[Liberal Leader Justin] Trudeau is playing with dynamite,

and he doesn’t even know it,” says Eric Montigny, a political

scientist at Laval University.

“Young people care about climate change, they care about

issues of social justice and inequality,” says Sara Asalya, who

established the Newcomer Students’ Association at Ryerson

University. “These are issues that really impact them as young

people, while older people care about affordability and incomes

and tax cuts and those things.”

It’s a mess.

Four years ago, Mr. Trudeau arrived in office as Liberal Prime

Minister with, in retrospect, unreasonably high expectations.

Finally, his supporters believed, Canada would join the fight

against global warming. Finally, Ottawa would renew and ex-

pand social programs after a decade of Conservative drift. The

Liberals would repair the frayedbonds of democraticgovern-

ance and, for the first time since Confederation, treat Indige-

nous Canadians with the true nation-to-nation respect that was

their right.

Except no one knows what nation-to-nation truly means, and

a lack of progress on other fronts has soured relations between

the Liberals and many First Nations.

And while the Liberals talked a good game on climate

change, they accepted the modest targets adopted by Stephen

Harper’sgovernment. During the campaign, when Mr. Trudeau

promised that a re-elected Liberalgovernment would do even

more to fight global warming, the NDP replied in a news release:

“You. Bought. A. Pipeline.”

ELECTION, O6

SPLIT

THE

DIFFERENCE

PHOTOILLUSTRATIONaBRYANGEE.
SOURCEIMAGESaREUTERSÖ
THECANADIANPRESS

Whetherit’sQuebecvs.EnglishCanada,Westvs.Eastoryoungvs.old,

JohnIbbitsonwrites,unityishardtofindinthe2019federalrace–

anditmaystilleludeusafterward

OPINION

J ̈‹¢IQQŽÝÓ ̈¢ŽÓAîώÝnÏ-AÝ-—Aςn
AÝT‹nG— ̈QnA¢eMAŽ—.HŽÓ—AÝnÓÝ
Q ̈ ̈–ŽÓEmptyPlanet:TheShock
ofGlobalPopulationDecline,
[ ̈-Aæ݋ ̈ÏneîŽÝ‹DAÏÏn——Bώ[–nÏ.