Justin Trudeau urged Leonardo DiCaprio to tone down criticism of Canadian oilsands, source says
Lee Berthiaume, Postmedia News | January 22, 2016 4:06 PM ET
Trudeau reveals what DiCaprio said to him about climate change
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged actor Leonardo DiCaprio to tone down his criticisms of Canada’s oil and gas sector when the two met at a major economic summit in Switzerland this week.
An ardent environmentalist, DiCaprio was widely derided by Albertans last December after he described the province’s famous Chinook winds as “terrifying” evidence of climate change. The Chinooks are natural phenomena that carry warm air over the Rocky Mountains in the middle of winter.
DiCaprio also travelled to Fort McMurray, Alta., in August 2014 to research an environmental documentary. And he starred in a video critical of the energy sector, in which he said, “They drill, they extract, making trillions of dollars. We must fight to keep this carbon in the ground.”
Most recently in Davos on Wednesday, DiCaprio used a major speech on climate change to rail against what he described as the “corporate greed” of the energy sector and called for an end to fossil-fuel use.
“Enough is enough,” he said. “You know better. The world knows better. History will place the blame for this devastation squarely at their feet.”
A senior Liberal official said that Trudeau told DiCaprio during a dinner on Wednesday that the award-winning actor’s comments were causing more harm than good. The dinner was hosted by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“The prime minister said there’s a new (federal) government, there’s a new government in Edmonton, and they’re both working hard to do something serious about this issue that you care about,” the official said. He said Trudeau told DiCaprio “making statements like that to the media, at a time when a lot of people who are not making the kind of money you’re making and are losing their jobs, is not helpful.”
The official told the Ottawa Citizen that DiCaprio was receptive to Trudeau’s message, and indicated he would be the first to applaud if Canada began taking serious steps to address climate change.
Trudeau has been in Davos since Tuesday, where he has talked about the government’s plan to invest billions in infrastructure as it attempts to shift to a low-carbon economy. But some have questioned his government’s commitment to Canada’s oil and gas sector.
The prime minister told an audience of national and corporate leaders on Wednesday that while former prime minister Stephen Harper “wanted you to know Canada for its resources, I want you to know Canadians for our resourcefulness.”
Though Trudeau acknowledged in his speech that Canada’s “natural resources are important, and they always will be,” Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, who was also in Davos — and whose city has been devastated by the plummeting price of oil — wasn’t entirely satisfied. Nenshi said he “might not have used the same language that the prime minister used.
“We are still a resource-based economy,” Nenshi told reporters. “Our biggest export is still energy, and I do not see a path where that does not continue to be the case. So clearly we need to continue what we can on market access.”
For her part, Conservative finance critic Lisa Raitt asked why Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr was not invited to accompany Trudeau to Davos. The prime minister’s delegation included Finance Minister Bill Morneau, International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains, Treasury Board President Scott Brison, and Environment Minister Catherine McKenna.
“Who you bring is what you plan on selling,” Raitt said. “And you leave the guy home who’s in charge of oil and gas, who can talk about pipelines, the process around pipelines? Who can try to give some assurances to the world community that we’ll get our natural resources to tidewater?”
But Trudeau spokesman Cameron Ahmad said Trudeau’s delegation demonstrated “Canada’s greatest economic assets, including our diversity and connections to the world.” He added that Carr has met provincial counterparts, and those from the U.S., Mexico and the European Union since November.
Trudeau appeared to be doing more to support the oil sector than simply debating glamorous actors. Bloomberg News reported earlier this week that the government has decided to focus an initial $1 billion in infrastructure spending on Alberta and Saskatchewan, which have been hit hardest by the massive collapse of oil prices. The federal government is reportedly talking with both to identify potential projects.
The federal government is also facing calls to provide early equalization payments to western provinces, while an Alberta oil worker’s letter asking Trudeau to do more has gone viral.
Trudeau’s week at Davos allowed him to mingle with both the powerful and the celebrated — including U2 frontman Bono and actor Kevin Spacey. He also met the heads of General Motors, Royal Dutch Shell, drug giant Novartis and the president of Switzerland, Johann Schneider-Ammann — whose handlers had to turn down requests from local reporters to question Trudeau because the
