Most subscribers say tackling climate change and the energy transition is the top economic issue in the 2021 federal election campaign, according to The Logic’s latest subscriber survey.

Forty-nine per cent of subscribers said climate change is the most important issue for the country’s economy. Thirty-two per cent said tackling the deficit is the top priority, while 24 per cent said it’s housing.

“I’d like more on climate change and how we can manage our water resources so we don’t repeat the short-term, extractive way we managed our energy resources over most of my lifetime,” one subscriber wrote.

With climate change concerns rising across the globe, Canada’s political parties have put forth their strategies to combat them. The federal Liberals said they’d make oil and gas companies set five-year targets meant to make their operations carbon-neutral by 2050. They also said they’d spend $2 billion to help Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador in their energy transition. The Conservatives are also promising ways to cut emissions, though they have a lesser target. The NDP is targeting a reduction of 50 per cent in emissions by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

As for the Green Party, their plan is to “electrify everything,” install renewables everywhere, and invest in cleantech innovation. The Bloc Québécois have pledged to put “an end to oil.”

Asked what parties should be discussing in the election campaign, subscribers wrote that there are many issues yet to be covered. “The policy tools that encourage innovation—going beyond platitudes [need to be discussed]. For example, carbon pricing is now starting to encourage low-carbon innovation in Canada, and there’s many similar environmental and innovation connections that could be made,” wrote one subscriber. 

Another subscriber said current climate-change plans are not addressing the crisis effectively, and that parties should address “what they plan to do about this.”

One respondent also noted how climate-change concerns are linked to improving the Canadian economy: “This issue is closely tied to the question of how we transition to a sustainable economy based on cleantech.”

When it comes to who has the best plan and team for promoting Canadian innovation, about 31 per cent of respondents said the Liberal Party is strongest, while the Conservative Party came in a close second at 30 per cent. Twenty per cent were undecided, and 11 percent said none of the major parties had strong plans.

Many subscribers said they were unsure which federal party they’d vote for, at 29 per cent. However, 30 per cent said they would vote for the Liberals. About 22 per cent chose the Conservative Party, and nearly 12 per cent said they’d vote for the NDP.

As Canadians get ready to head to the polls amid the pandemic, 61 per cent of subscribers said they’re optimistic about the country’s economic recovery, about 22 percentage points less than in July. Meanwhile, about 28 per cent of respondents said they were pessimistic about the recovery, and those who said they were neither optimistic or pessimistic increased about seven percentage points to 10 per cent. Almost one per cent said they weren’t sure, a decrease from nearly three per cent in July.

“Our economy was strong beforehand and I believe that gives us the foundation to build on for recovery,” a subscriber wrote.