Trudeau Confronts Challenge of Climate and Economy in Canada’s Far North

Justin Trudeau won Canada’s highest office with a pledge to find a balance between its fossil-fuel-driven economy and a more muscular plan for climate change. Eight years later, it’s still one of his biggest challenges, encapsulated by what’s happening in the Arctic.

The country’s north is potentially rich in untapped resources and lucrative new supply routes that are opening up with warmer temperatures. It’s also burning: residents of Yellowknife, the second-largest city in the northern territories, were evacuated because of encroaching wildfires, another chapter in the worst summer for forest fires on record in Canada.