Climate change hits home for some on P.E.I. but takes back seat in election
CTV
A week into the Prince Edward Island election campaign, some observers are questioning why climate change is not front and centre on the campaign trail.
A week into the Prince Edward Island election campaign, there has been plenty of talk about health care and housing. But after post-tropical storm Fiona pounded the Island last fall and heightened fears about rising seas, some observers are questioning why climate change is not front and centre on the campaign trail.
Scientists say tropical storms like Fiona that form in the southern Atlantic and head north to the Canadian coast are likely getting more intense as the planet warms. Phyllis Carr, whose Carr's Oyster Bar in Stanley Bridge, P.E.I., suffered minor damage from Fiona, has seen the shoreline change over the years. To her, climate change is "definitely" one of the most important issues this election.
"The amount of erosion that we have in our area is crazy, and on Prince Edward Island as a whole. And how are we going to rebuild?" she asked in an interview last week. "People who own places on the shoreline, how are they going to deal with the loss of land?"
Fiona's wrath is visible in Stanley Bridge, as displaced buildings still sit where the storm left them. But while the storm's fury was an eye-opener, Carr said she's not sure how seriously people are thinking about the climate change issue as the province heads to an April 3 vote.
"If we go through another Fiona to be hit as hard as we were and for that to happen again in another year or two down the road, it is scary," she said.
Marvin Graham's fishing boat, Greenwitch, was damaged when Fiona hit on Sept. 24 and it's in a shop for repairs. But the owner of Graham's Deep Sea Fishing is not sure what comes next because a dock that was ripped out by Fiona is still sitting on the opposite side of the harbour -- on dry land -- and the Stanley Bridge wharf needs to be fixed.
He is hoping he can work this coming season, he said. After Fiona left his livelihood in peril, he is convinced the issues of climate change and erosion are as important as health care in the election. But unless climate events threaten a person's home or make it hard for them to put food on the table, the climate issue seems abstract.
