Environment | On October 3, we will vote for our children

Our children are in danger, we demand political courage and we will vote to protect them!

Nathalie Ainsley
Mother at the front for Laurie and Annie, and more than 120 other signatories*

Throughout Quebec, the Mothers at the front are mobilizing to remind all parties that environmental issues must not only be at the heart of this election campaign, but also at the center of the decisions of elected officials and the public apparatus. We call on the next government to scrutinize all its decisions for their effects on the environment and on intergenerational equity. It is imperative to avoid accentuating the climate crisis, damage to our health and biodiversity.

While last week the review Science confirmed that global warming has already brought the world closer to dangerous tipping points leading to irreversible climate disruption, we who are mothers no longer know how to protect our children.

How is it possible that in 2022, parties can campaign as if the climate and biodiversity crises did not exist? How can we advocate economic growth regardless of planetary boundaries? Without having the courage to propose sufficient greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets and a plan to achieve them? Scientists have been warning us for years. Billions of people around the world are already affected and we know that Quebec will not be spared.

Collectively, we have the power and the duty to act on the fate of future generations and on the outcome of elections. The solutions exist and the scientists keep telling us that every ton of CO₂ avoided, every fraction of a degree counts and that the next four years will be crucial for the climate.

The Mothers at the Front ask all parties to commit to three concrete solutions so that the Quebec population can feel the positive impacts of the ecological transition:

• invest massively in public and active transportation to make them more efficient, faster and affordable, which will make them essential choices that will reduce traffic and make our living environments healthier and safer;
• make the protection of Quebec’s biodiversity a priority and protect the natural capital of our children, by creating protected areas for caribou and all species, in order to make nature accessible to a greater number of people, and to protect life on Earth;
• put in place adaptation measures, by protecting natural environments, trees and green spaces, and by modernizing our buildings and infrastructures so that they are more resistant to climatic extremes, while prioritizing vulnerable populations, in order to better prepare to deal with the crisis which is already intensifying.

Prioritizing the environment is also an economic choice. The experts warn us that action will cost less than inaction. When natural disasters escalate, crop failures, food shortages and broken supply chains put pressure on the cost of groceries, the healthcare system becomes stretched, not to mention the costs reconstruction and rising insurance. There is no economy without healthy ecosystems.

We have everything we need in Quebec to build an inclusive, unifying and forward-looking social project for our children, to move towards a circular and collaborative economy, to meet our needs while respecting the limits of ecosystems. Let’s dream of a Quebec with less pollution, more calm and green spaces, more local shops and safe places to get around on foot and by bike, with more mutual aid, humanity and hope. .

On October 3, we will vote for our children. We gave life and we will do everything to protect it. Our children do not vote, but we will vote to ensure a future for them, we will vote for political courage in matters of the environment. All is not played. Let’s take action, it’s our duty.

* Co-signatories, mothers and grandmothers at the front across Quebec: Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, mother at the front for Manoé, Ulysse and Mishka; Elsa Moreau, mother at the front for Ophélie and Héloïse; Louise Deschênes, mother at the front for Mathilde and Fleur; Mireille Elchacar, mother at the front for Albert and Alexandra; France Duquette, mother at the front for Arthur, Eli, Marine and Thierry; Laure Waridel, mother at the front for Alphée, Colin, Félix, Gabriel, Justine, Theodora (29 years old in 2050) and all the children of the world; Sophie Devost, mother at the front for all the children of Frelighsburg; Diane Choquet, grandmother at the Laurentians front for Éva and mother of Maude and Laurie; Caroline Dufresne, mother at the front for Jérôme and Corinne; Annie Provencher, mother at the front for Émilien, Clément and Adèle.