By Canadian Press

Trudeau turns to B.C. MP with Saskatchewan roots to helm tricky climate ministry

Nov 20, 2019 | 12:11 PM

OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is turning to his only cabinet minister with roots in Saskatchewan to carry this country’s climate action plan further down the field without tearing the nation apart.

Jonathan Wilkinson, a 54-year-old former cleantech CEO and Rhodes Scholar, is becoming the new environment minister today.

He is succeeding Catherine McKenna, whose four years in the portfolio were rife with conflict as she shepherded a carbon tax applying in any province that didn’t initiate an equivalent system of their own.

Wilkinson represents the riding of North Vancouver but grew up in Saskatoon and once was Saskatchewan’s lead negotiator in the Charlottetown Accord constitutional talks.

His abilities as a negotiator and his understanding of western alienation will be tested as his first assignment will be toughening Canada’s greenhouse-gas emissions targets and climate action plan amid deep-seated anger in Canada’s oil and gas provinces.

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Wilkinson is a second-term MP who served as parliamentary secretary to McKenna for nearly three years before being promoted to cabinet as the fisheries minister in July 2018.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Nov. 20, 2019.

The Canadian Press