Guilbeault arrested, CPC YouTube image. Arrest from July 16, 2001
OTTAWA — Liberal MP Steven Guilbeault announced to caucus Wednesday he will resign his Montreal seat later this summer, closing a political career that transformed one of Canada’s best-known environmental activists into a senior cabinet minister and one of Alberta’s most controversial federal political figures.
Guilbeault told colleagues during the Liberal caucus meeting he plans to remain as a member of Parliament through the summer before stepping down from his Laurier—Sainte-Marie seat.
In a statement posted online, Guilbeault said the decision followed “careful consideration” and would allow him to continue fighting climate change and environmental issues outside elected office.
Prime Minister Mark Carney thanked Guilbeault for his years of public service and praised his environmental work both inside and outside government.
Carney credited Guilbeault with helping establish Canada’s first emissions reduction plan and assisting in negotiations surrounding the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework aimed at protecting 30 per cent of Canada’s lands and waters.
The prime minister also pointed to Guilbeault’s role supporting cultural initiatives including the establishment of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Carney said the government remains committed to climate action and preserving Canada’s natural heritage while wishing Guilbeault and his family well in the next chapter of his career.
Guilbeault’s departure follows months of increasingly public disagreement with Carney’s government over environmental and energy policy.
The former environment minister resigned from cabinet after Ottawa signed an agreement with Alberta aimed at advancing a new bitumen pipeline project. Guilbeault later criticized the rollback of several Trudeau-era climate policies, including the consumer carbon tax, electric vehicle mandates and proposed emissions caps targeting the oil and gas sector.
Long before entering politics, Guilbeault had already become one of the country’s most polarizing environmental figures, particularly in Alberta where many conservatives viewed him as openly hostile toward the oilpatch and oilsands development.
Before winning election in 2019, Guilbeault spent decades with environmental organizations including Greenpeace and Équiterre, frequently participating in high-profile protests and civil disobedience campaigns targeting fossil fuel development.
He was arrested multiple times during demonstrations across Canada.
In 2000, Guilbeault and several activists chained themselves to massive Suncor equipment destined for the oilsands near Fort McMurray in an effort to stop its transport north.
Two years later, he helped organize a protest at then-Alberta premier Ralph Klein’s home, where activists climbed onto the roof to install solar panels as a political stunt.
But Guilbeault’s most famous protest came in 2001 when he scaled Toronto’s CN Tower alongside another Greenpeace activist and unfurled a banner criticizing Canada and the United States over climate policy and the Kyoto accord.
His appointment as environment minister under former prime minister Justin Trudeau in 2021 alarmed many in Alberta’s energy sector, where critics accused him of pursuing aggressive climate policies aimed at shutting down oil and gas development.
Fort McMurray-Cold Lake MP Laila Goodridge said Guilbeault “denigrated Canada’s oil and gas industry throughout his time in politics.”
Goodridge described Guilbeault as “a radical environmental activist actively opposing oilsands” before entering federal politics and later serving in the cabinets of both Trudeau and Carney.
She also argued Carney’s Liberals remain influenced by anti-development activists and pointed to a recent letter from 14 Liberal MPs raising environmental concerns surrounding future pipeline development.
Even after entering politics, Guilbeault remained a lightning rod in western Canada, where Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and other conservatives regularly portrayed him as an ideological opponent of the province’s energy industry.
Despite the criticism, Guilbeault remained highly influential within environmental circles and was often described by allies as both a committed activist and pragmatic negotiator capable of working with governments and industry groups.
His resignation now closes a political chapter that saw a former Greenpeace protester move from climbing towers and chaining himself to industrial equipment to helping shape federal climate policy from inside cabinet.
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