The leaders of the three main political parties have each generated enough carbon emissions this election campaign to equal the output of 1,000 people driving their car for an entire year.
The David Suzuki Foundation monitored the carbon footprints of the party leaders throughout the campaign, based on where they went everyday and how they travelled.
"The three main leaders have travelled between 46,000 and 56,000 kilometres, and that's more than once around the world for each of them," Dale Marshall, a climate change policy analyst with the David Suzuki Foundation told CTV's Canada AM.
"We know the leaders criss-cross the country over the course of the campaign and even fly from one end of the country to the other in order to cover the ridings they want to be in, so it's no surprise really."
Green Party leader Elizabeth May travelled by train during the campaign, conducting an old fashioned whistle-stop tour that resulted in much lower carbon emissions than the other leaders.
"It really does highlight the big, big difference between travelling by train and travelling by plane, especially when it comes to short distances -- Ottawa to Montreal or Montreal to Toronto or Calgary to Edmonton," Marshall said.
Conservative leader Stephen Harper traveled 46,178 kilometres and visited 66 cities during the campaign. Liberal leader Stephane Dion racked up 51,212 kilometres and hit 68 cities. NDP leader Jack Layton had the highest kilometre count at 56,252, visiting 64 cities.
May, by contrast, covered 22,107 kilometre and visited just 26 cities.
Following are the leaders' carbon footprints as measured in tonnes of emissions created by their travel itineraries during the campaign.
- NDP: 586.1
- Conservatives: 514.4
- Liberals: 503.4
- Green Party: 2.5
The average Canadian generates over five tonnes of greenhouse gas annually.
The foundation calculated the emissions levels by adding up the distances travelled and the amount of fuel used by the planes, buses and cars used in getting from destination to destination.
A formula is then used to multiply the kilometres travelled in each type of vehicle by the amount of carbon emission created when the vehicle's fuel is burned, to estimate the total number of tonnes of greenhouse gases emitted by each leader during the campaign.
All of the parties except the Conservatives purchased offset credits to compensate for their carbon footprint.
