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Glen Pearson is one of two MPs spending this weekend with former U.S. vice-president Al Gore to get lessons on battling climate change.
Pearson, Liberal MP for London-North-Centre, will head to Montreal with about 200 other Canadians to learn how to spread the message.
It's key for Canada's leaders to re-ignite interest in the environment as it appears to be taking a back seat to the economy, Pearson said.
"It is up to Canada's leaders to take advantage of these opportunities."
Pearson and fellow Liberal Mauril Belanger (Ottawa-Vanier) are the two MPs attending, said Victoria Serda, a Port Elgin environmentalist and one of the key organizers for the Climate Project Canada's training session.
The Climate Project is a non-profit volunteer group that began in the United States, focused on Gore's Academy Award-winning movie, An Inconvenient Truth, and his followup presentations.
Gore will lead the Montreal participants through the science and format of his presentation, so they can repeat it in their communities, Serda said.
Each participant makes a commitment to give the presentation at least 10 times.
Serda, trained in the U.S, said she has made the presentation 90 times, reaching at least 4,500 people.
If the 200 participants trained in Montreal make the 10 presentations to about 50 people, then 100,000 Canadians will have heard the message about climate change, Serda said.
Pearson won his London-North-Centre seat in 2006, beating out Green Party Leader Elizabeth May.
"The environment was a key element of the campaign," Pearson said.
Although he speaks often about the environment, "I still have a lot to learn," Pearson said.
The environment also is key to his work as co-director of the London food bank and a city-based agency helping southern Sudan, he said.
Climate change and the accompanying growth of the Sahara desert is fuelling the refugee crisis and war in Sudan, Pearson said.
Climate change also is affecting the world's food supply, he said.
Although he speaks often about the environment, "I still have a lot to learn," Pearson said.