Thread by @Climatepledgeco

Today, I brought my daughter to the Legislature to watch the #climateemergency debate. When people started singing, I sang too. We got kicked out for breaking the rules. I explained it to her by saying that if the rules are going to get someone hurt, you have to break them.

They say that Nero fiddled while Rome burned, well I can tell you the @OntarioPCParty quite literally fiddled on their phones while the planet burned and every single opposition party screamed at them to look up and make eye contact.

@fordnation was absent, as usual. Both in city council and at the provincial level, I'm not sure there has ever been a politician who cared less about governing.

@MonteMcNaughton constantly chirped and chortled out of turn at other people's genuine fears like a drunken fratboy at a hazing.

@Billy__Pang did a mocking impersonation of parents like me who are in a panic about the future of our planet running around shouting: "panic!" "panic!" "panic!" -- a move so low I wouldn't allow it from my toddler WHOSE NEURAL CAPACITY FOR EMPATHY HASN'T DEVELOPED YET.

When @YGKIanArthur gave one of the rawest speeches I have ever heard -- the first speech on climate I have heard from a sitting politician that matched my intensity of emotion on this issue as a father, @RodPhillips01 sauntered out into the hall, pausing to chat on the way.

And there were strong words from others as well @Peter_Tabuns, @MikeSchreiner, @RomeoSaganash, @FaisalHassanNDP, @AndreaHorwath, @JILLSLASTWORD and others all made it clear that they see the crisis steamrolling towards us.

And what was the reply? The PCs only had three tricks:

1) Ontario has done 'more than its fair share' -- this is perhaps the dumbest rebuttal because it means A) that the liberal plan to close coal plants was a good one and B) that Jason Kenney is the one who now needs to pull up his damn pants.

2) We have a 'made-in-ontario' plan that will cut emissions. Where to even start? It allows more emissions than the previous plan, it 'meets' the Paris targets only to the extent that it matches the globally weak federal pledge WHICH WE AREN'T MEETING IN PRACTICE, and...

it DOESN'T ADD UP, many of the 'sections' of the plan have literally zero legislative or funding components, they are just finger waving. If you are so proud of the plan, I dare you to let 1 expert or scientist from your own ministry do an interview about the plan on TV.

3) Carbon Tax, carbon tax, carbon tax... it's gonna cost ya. But not one of these snakes mentioned the rebate. I don't think a carbon tax is a perfect plan, but to complain about the cost without mentioning the rebates is about as honest as slapping "Fat Free" on a box of sugar.

So yes, when the people sang 'The people gonna rise like the water, we gonna calm this crisis down, I hear the voice of my great granddaughter, singing keep it in the ground," I sang too.

It was a beautiful moment and it was organic. I saw a lot of faces I knew from other climate events both in the galleries and in the stairwells with the (very polite and professional) constabulary, but I don't even know who started singing or who joined in and who stayed behind.

There were people from @Toronto350, @TOClimateFuture, @XR_Toronto, @ClimateFast and other groups and we were all singing together. And we will keep singing until we get climate justice.

Also, shout out to whichever MPP called out the PCs for their "silly sticker plan" -- this was my daughter's favourite moment of the debate.