Please speak out against Harper 2.0

Letter to the editor: Asking NWT MP Alty to Speak Out Against Harper 2.0

Please speak out against Harper 2.0 Published 11:06 am Thursday, July 16, 2026 From: Lois Little, Yellowknife Dear editor; I am concerned about the direction the Liberal Party with Mark Carney’s leadership is taking us, the risks being created, and my MP’s silence and complicity. It feels like we are living in a time of Stephen Harper 2.0. I am one of Rebecca Alty’s constituents, an engaged citizen, a volunteer with social-environmental justice groups, and a life-long community and social development practitioner.

I wrote to ask Alty to advocate for the health of our ecosystems, including the people, land and water, the values of common good and interdependence that sustain Northern peoples and cultures, and the core pillars of a functioning democracy and positive political relationships. I asked her to put aside the Liberal talking points of requiring sacrifice to strengthen the national economy, build Canadian unity, protect Canada’s sovereignty, and trust the Carney government. I asked her to speak out and resist the regressive direction of Carney’s leadership.

This leadership is turning back the clock to champion extractivism, militarism, climate inaction, environmental harm and attacks on the social safety net, public services and democratic processes and institutions when we should be going the opposite direction on all of these fronts. I asked her to encourage her Liberal MP colleagues to speak out too. Alty’s recent newsletter said that the Liberal government is “building a stronger, more independent and resilient economy at home.”

This is not true. What the Liberal government is building is a more precarious, less safe society. In this time of global political, socio-economic, and climate chaos, all orders of government should be focused on building sustainable, resilient, interdependent communities and economies that are locally and regional controlled and able to adapt to 21st century realities.

They should not be putting us in harms-way to satiate the interests of warmongers, profiteers and fascists. I am astounded at the number of regressive actions that the Carney-led Liberal government has taken in the past months. Even though Canada has the worst emissions reductions track record in the G7, the Carney government has decided to make it worse.

Stepping away from climate action is beyond regressive, especially when every scientist in the world is calling for decarbonization and so many people are living and dying in the hell of climate breakdown. Yet the Carney government is: 1) ramping up greenhouse gas emissions that will speed up climate change, fuel more wildfires and drought; 2) putting more public money into another bitumen pipeline that will likely double oil sands production and create more toxic tailings that will make their way into the Mackenzie River Basin; and 3) incentivizing a suite of liquid natural gas projects with public money in the form of tax credits and infrastructure investments that will damage ecosystems and so many peoples’ way of life.

And all of this on top of having already: -Eliminated the consumer carbon tax on gasoline and home heating fuels discouraging efforts to decarbonize. -Repealed the electric vehicle (EV) sales mandate requiring 20 per cent of vehicles sold in Canada to be fully electric by 2026, with combustion vehicles being phased out of sales by 2035. -Axed the two billion trees carbon sequester program, even though only 228 million trees were planted in past six years.

-Dropped the Canada Greener Homes Grant that assisted homeowners with energy efficiency retrofits/upgrades. -Suspended clean electricity regulations that would have required a net-zero grid throughout the country by 2050. -Opted for unproven carbon capture/sequestration to offset increased industrial carbon emissions instead of hard emissions caps.

-Committed to more nuclear energy, including the military’s use in the North of unproven small modular reactors and supporting 10 new large reactor projects elsewhere in Canada and using One Canadian Economy Act (Bill C-5) to fast track a high-level nuclear waste repository in northern Ontario. -Included in the Spring Economic Update 2026 Implementation Act (Bill C-30) the power of cabinet to bypass existing laws to greenlight the use of toxic, banned pesticides that will undoubtedly end up leaching into the groundwater and watersheds.

-Proposed removal of First Nations’ human right to clean drinking water from the First Nations Clean Water Act (Bill C-37). Undermining laws and democracy Not only is this Liberal government knowingly choosing to make Canadians more vulnerable to the impacts of climate breakdown and toxic substances but it’s undermining laws and democratic processes to do it. Along with cancelling the digital service tax to give “big tech” a free-ride, it seems the Liberal caucus has adopted big tech’s mantra of lawlessness and ‘moving fast and breaking things.’

In fact, members of the Liberal executive branch have given themselves extraordinary powers to override federal legislation. Not only does cabinet have the power to bypass existing laws in Bill C-30, but these powers are also in Bill C-5 and the Budget Implementation Act (Bill C-15). While I am deeply troubled by the Liberal government driving climate breakdown and overriding laws, I am worried about many other actions too.

I have written to my MP and federal ministers about many of them, including: -Imposing militarization on the North without comprehensive plans, consultation or impacts assessment. -Continuing to arm Israel and complicity in genocide, human rights violations and undermining universal human rights and rule of law. -Downsizing the public service by 40,000 positions and reductions in social, health, justice, environmental and Indigenous-specific programs and services that are likely to impact the most vulnerable Canadians.

-Rather than safeguarding universal access to healthcare based on need, remaining silent on violations to the Canada Health Act thereby giving tacit approval to healthcare based on ability to pay and opening of expected predatory practices of private insurers. -Proposing ‘AI for all’ in spite of well-known harmful effects to individuals, society, democracy and the environment. -Proposing to narrow the scope of access to information legislation, thereby undermining the public’s right to know, which is fundamental to a healthy democracy.

-Giving Canadian Security and Intelligence Service and Canada’s police forces greater surveillance power and access to information without full debate prior to passing the Lawful Access Act (Bill C-22). -Threatening fundamental rights to privacy, equality and free expression in the proposed Safe Social Media Act (Bill C-35). -Proposing to privatize, without any apparent cost-benefit or impact assessment, Canada’s airports and seaports that will likely result in more foreign ownership of critical infrastructure.

I am troubled too by the significant legislative attacks on human rights, refugees, asylum seekers, and temporary foreign workers. I am concerned too about the many tax breaks, subsidies and other gifts to ‘big money,’ many of which are foreign interests. Who is the Liberal government under Carney’s leadership serving?

Who is being served by fast tracking the Grays Bay road and port? Who is served by rolling ahead with the NORAD militarization project without a comprehensive plan or proponent? Who is served by all the regressive actions I’ve listed?

How are these actions “building a stronger, more independent and resilient economy at home?” How are these actions helping Northerners and Canadians adapt to and thrive through 21st century realities? I recommended to Alty that rather than the $25 billion expenditures on major energy, infrastructure, mining and technology projects that she highlight in her recent newsletter, Northerners would be better served by investments in building resilient, interdependent communities.

This means investments in local/regional renewable energy, food production, climate adapted housing and infrastructure, integrated human services and environmental management systems and technologies that enable us to manage through climate breakdown and geo-political threats, and that contribute to sustainability and upholding the values dear to Northerners and other Canadians. Investments in Northerners and Canadians could be funded from a wealth tax, windfall profits tax, inheritance tax, ceasing subsidies to planet killing industries, and ending financial capitulation to ‘big money,’ whether it be technology, grocers, developers, hedge funds, banks or extractive industries.

I quoted her boss saying that “going along to get along is no longer an option.” She needs to speak up to defend Northerners and the laws and processes that protect us. She is my MP first and a minister in the Liberal Party government executive second.

She needs to speak up!