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Steven Guilbeault is still fighting
As this year’s recipient of the Corporate Knights Award of Distinction, the pugnacious former environment minister talks to us about where he’s been and where he’s going.
One of the turning points in Steven Guilbeault’s life came in 1995, sharing a gymnasium floor in former East Berlin with hundreds of young people. Like other 20-somethings, he had filled a backpack to go to Europe, but with an unconventional purpose in mind: to call for more ambition from governments as world leaders were convening for the first time for the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, colloquially known as COP1.
“To see all these young folks from all around the world working together in a shared way, with shared objectives and passion,” he says today, “it really shaped the course of my life.”
Another turning point for Guilbeault unfolded this spring in Ottawa, as the well-known and controversial former environment minister took a bow from federal politics, marking a clear split from the Mark Carney government on environmental and energy policies.
On May 27, Guilbeault, 56, announced his retirement as a member of Parliament, a few months after resigning from Carney’s cabinet. It capped off a heady and influential four years at the helm of one of the most sensitive government portfolios in the country. He served as minister of environment and climate change from 2021 to 2025, with stints as minister of heritage, minister of Canadian identity and culture and minister responsible for official languages before and after.
Upon his announcement, environmental groups heralded his integrity and work, with the David Suzuki Foundation celebrating his “vital contribution to the fight against climate change” and Environmental Defence calling on more MPs to “publicly reject the government’s assault on climate, nature and Canada’s economic and social future.”
At its annual gala on June 24, 2026, Corporate Knights recognized Guilbeault with its Award of Distinction, an honour that has previously gone to Ken Dryden, Tom Mulcair, Kathy Bardswick and Vicky Sharpe, among others. |Read more|