By Hannah Caparino, April 24 2025—
The upcoming 2025 federal election sparked major debate regarding the dismissal of issues that can impact voter turnout and engagement. The recent announcement for the political parties to disregard climate change in the election has influenced whether or not climate change had significant influence over federal policies.
Jed Kaplan serves as a professor in the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Science in both the Department of Earth, Energy and Environment, and the Department of Computer Science. Kaplan sat down with the Gauntlet to discuss the ramifications of not including the topic to discuss in the coming election.
Kaplan first discussed the decline in conversation surrounding the topic of climate change prior to the election as the stress regarding the tariffs.
“Climate change has completely fallen off the radar when it comes to the upcoming federal election. It is effectively not an issue … because it has been completely drowned out by more immediate and potentially more pressing issues,” said Kaplan. “What Canadians appeared to be most concerned about is jobs in the economy and the costs of living because of housing [and] inflation, and climate change is relatively far down the list of people’s concerns and that’s being reflected in the kind of things that are being discussed in the debate at the moment.”
Kaplan describes the recent removal of the consumer carbon tax prior to the election in order to redirect the conversation during the election. Despite the cancellation of the consumer carbon tax, approaching the oncoming effects of climate change and public involvement will be discussed after the election takes place.
“I think that any new action, federal action on climate change is going to take a different form and we will certainly have a different name, and be packaged in a very different way,” said Kaplan.
While the federal government has implemented incentives surrounding new technologies that would counter the impact of climate change, there are degrees to which the public has responded. Despite the conversation around climate change declining during the upcoming election, Kaplan emphasized that climate change is an ongoing process that is affecting all parts of Canada.
“Canada’s already experiencing large-scale climate change and we have everything from drought, to wildfires, to extreme weather, like floods, winds that are having a big impact on us as a nation. So whether or not this becomes an issue driving the election, it’s something that we are facing and that we will face in the future,” said Kaplan.
Although Canada’s leadership may change, the topic of research and news about climate change is tied to Canada’s exposure and high risk to climate change. Kaplan made the comparison between the two leading parties, the Conservative and Liberal parties, and explored each party’s approach to climate change and general conservation. Between the two parties and their upcoming policies, the Conservative party most notably sidelined climate issues from their 2023 policy declaration, whereas the Liberal party had taken steps towards supporting climate research in prior policy resolutions as evident in their policies in 2023.
Climate focused research will slowly retract and both the support and funding may decline if Canada’s economic state were to recede in the coming years. While this may appear as a setback, effort and awareness around the topic should not cease.
“I think Canada is just too exposed to climate change and climate change risks to really just completely ignore it,” Kaplan said.
Kaplan called attention to the impact that conversation and accessible education can have on the University of Calgary community and beyond, reviewing how constructive conversation can impact individual practices and way of life.
“As a university campus, we have an opportunity and even an obligation, I think, to educate our student body about climate change,” said Kaplan. “Climate change awareness is something that really does need to be built up from the grassroots.”
While there are top down approaches that are led by the federal government or organizations like the United Nations, individual action is required to instigate change and combat disinformation during a time of fear mongering and spread of misinformation.
“I really believe that building awareness not only of the challenge of climate change, but also the potential for solutions that are beneficial is really important, and something that we should be promoting,” said Kaplan.
Although climate change is not a topic heavily discussed, everyone should do their part to educate themselves on the upcoming election and party policies. Advanced polling stations are now open across Calgary, and election day will take place on April 28. For information on candidates in designated ridings, readers can visit the Voter Information Service site, and for more general information about the election, click here.