A high-profile academic has announced that he wants to become the next member of Parliament for Vancouver Centre. Michael Byers, a UBC political scientist and author, told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview that he will seek the NDP nomination in the riding, which has been held by Liberal Hedy Fry since 1993. Green Party of Canada deputy leader Adriane Carr is also running.

Byers said he has decided to run because he wants to be able to look at his children in 20 or 30 years and be able to say that he took action to try to address important challenges facing humanity. He cited climate change as a “huge” concern, noting that this was driven home during a trip he took to the Arctic three weeks ago.

“The thing that was most striking was how the speed of climate change is accelerating—how it’s much worse than anyone really wants to believe,” Byers said. “To give you a sense of this, we flew over Cumberland Sound, which is a very large bay on the east coast of Baffin Island. This was three weeks ago; there was no ice.”

Fry told the Straight that it’s “great” that someone has stepped forward to fill the vacuum left by Randall Garrison, who stepped down as the NDP candidate last month. However, Fry said she thinks that Byers is running for the wrong party if he is concerned about climate change, noting that David Suzuki has criticized the NDP’s position and praised Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion’s proposed carbon tax.

Byers said that he has read Dion’s proposed “green shift” very closely, and has even spoken about it personally with the Liberal leader. The candidate said that he might have supported the Dion plan if it had been introduced shortly after he became party leader. However, Byers said that international oil prices have risen so rapidly that the market has already imposed a “transitional cost” on fossil fuels. To add a carbon tax on top of that—even though Dion’s won’t apply to gasoline sold at the pump—would carry “serious equity consequences”, Byers claimed.

“I think other approaches have equal if not greater merit,” Byers said. “The federal NDP platform leads with cap and trade.…Cap and trade is tried and tested. It worked on sulphur-dioxide emissions with acid rain.”

Byers also accused Dion of being a “Johnny come lately” to the global-warming issue. Fry, on the other hand, said, “I think you need to ask why a man like Mr. Byers would want to run for a party that is still in the 19th century in regard to any kind of really strong policy for the environment.”

Fry claimed that NDP Leader Jack Layton caused a “premature election” in early 2006 before major social-policy measures—such as a $6-billion national child-care program, the $5-billion Kelowna accord, and a national housing strategy—could be included as line items in a federal budget. “I think that he [Byers] is going to have to explain why Mr. Layton was eager to rush into an election,” she said.

Layton told the Straight in a phone interview that Byers’s decision to seek a nomination with the NDP demonstrates that “thoughtful people with an optimistic vision for the future” are coalescing around his party. “He’s a part of the next generation of thoughtful academics, commentators, engaged intellectuals who will certainly bring to our party policy depth, excitement, and a real sense of energy,” Layton said. “We’re certainly very excited about it.”

Layton added that he has known Byers since the political scientist was an academic at North Carolina’s Duke University. “I consulted with him many times on many, many issues,” Layton said.

Byers has written and edited five books, including Intent for a Nation: What Is Canada For? (Douglas & McIntyre, 2007). It argued in favour of Canada pursuing foreign policies more independent of the United States, and taking a larger role in international affairs.