The time to oppose this expensive nonsense was in the planning stage.
Now, everyone wants out of paying this expensive monstrosity.
Justin won't back down because vacations and liquor aren't cheap.
It's no wonder that some people in his circle want him gone:
Justin Trudeau came into office on the spume of Canadian-level celebrity, built on a persona of ostentatious, idle gestures and token cheer (selfies, socks, costumes), the endless vocalization of woke crackerjack-box slogans and a smile cemented in place that had all the warmth of well-gelled cement. Just style. Style, understood as the adoption of surface mannerisms in place of deeply settled convictions, convictions built on a real attempt to understand Canada, to relate to all its regions, and an appreciation (which does not mean agreement) of the ideas, lifestyles and situations of mainstream Canadians: style adopted as a campaign dynamic.
It’s worth reminding that from the moment of its first swearing-in, the Liberal government has been an administration of show and tactics: tactics have been its policy, tactics have been its governing lifeblood. Policies — in so far as it can be said to have had policies — have been merely (temporary) scaffolding or window displays meant to shore up the tactics. They have not been, as with an honourable government, needful measures for Canadian well-being, shored up not by tactics but by their obvious benefit and their consonance with what Canadians made clear were their concerns.
Canada’s predominant commitment these past eight painful years, the “one ring to rule them all,” the only government commitment held with deepest conviction we have been told, has been combatting global warming. It is different. It is real policy. It is the core principle. It is immutable because its cause is existential. It has been Canada’s passport to an admiring progressive world. Above all it has absolutely glowed with virtue-signalling and superior progressive sensibility. It has been as good as a wristband was at a rock concert years back.
For all of his eight years Trudeau has incessantly promoted and promulgated his single cause. At home he has out-Suzukied David Suzuki, out-Mayed Elizabeth May, and there have been moments when he “out-dared” Greta. Abroad, he has been climate alarmism’s smiling Galahad.
Global warming has been his religion, and what he calls the carbon tax both eucharist and passport to net-zero paradise. To an increasingly skeptical Canadian public, anxious and distrustful of a government regularly racked by scandal and heroic mismanagement, he said (I paraphrase): “I know I’m taxing a necessity — heat for homes in northerly Canada — and I know it must hit the poor first and worst. But it’s to save the world! Saving the world keeps me up at night. And I want Canada to lead the way in saving it. And for that, there must be a tax on energy, on gas and oil, on heating. It must be done. It’s a sacrifice poets will write in praise of in the lower-temperature world we will be key to making happen.”
The tax on carbon dioxide — the great comedians of the Liberal party called it a “tax on pollution” — had to be imposed, even as inflation ravaged the country and further immiserated the already sufficiently immiserate, because Trudeau had a whole world to save. It was the signature element of the signature policy of Trudeau’s showcase government. It was the indispensable girder in building a post-oil-and-gas future for a post-nationalist Canada, the indestructible bridge to a golden net-zero tomorrow for our country. And, incidentally, a great shiny glittering Last Spike to doom Conservative Alberta’s economy and government, and no little whack for Saskatchewan.
This was principle as policy, and policy as principle. For seven plus years.
And now. A few fingers snapped somewhere and suddenly, Mr. Trudeau … cancels the carbon tax. Cancel for one and you must cancel for all.
He just cancelled the carbon tax for heating oil in Atlantic Canada. The tax which he and his docile, obedient and grey cabinet have defended with the fervour of one of those dated Sunday morning TV preachers. It was the mother of all taxes since — from the beginning of time, and possibly earlier — it was the ONLY tax that once paid, would (so the Liberals incessantly howled) be followed by a cheque from the government larger than the tax.
And why was this planet-necessary policy amended for Atlantic Canada? First hint: it was not love. Second hint: polling during a Liberal nose-dive. It was the trembling or broken hold on the people’s trust currently on full display, and the irresistible need to grab on to anything that might stem or slow the Liberals’ Gadarene down-flight to voter dismissal, that brought on this Earth-shift in policy.
No hint. Fact. It was Liberal politics. For make no error, if four provinces in the Confederation can be manumitted from the carbon tax crusade, then logic and its stronger cousin — reality— insist that the other six and the territories will not only demand the same relief, they may, which premiers Scott Moe and Danielle Smith have already made clear, provide the relief by their own efforts.
**
Despite senior officials vowing no more carve-outs of Canada’s carbon tax policy, Canada’s agricultural sector is urging the government to cut them a break.
And with a critical private member’s bill on the verge of either becoming law or entering Parliamentary purgatory, the country’s food producers say they’re long overdue for a little relief.
Last week, Ottawa announced home heating oil was carbon tax exempt for three years — a move clearly meant to bolster cratering Atlantic Canada poll numbers, but one experts say demonstrates how malleable the federal government’s climate policies really are.
Among those seeking similar relief are Canada’s farmers, who are pinning their hopes on the Senate’s third reading of bill C-234 — a private member’s bill tabled by Conservative MP Ben Lobb that would exempt farms from paying carbon tax on propane and natural gas.
But amendments introduced during Senate committee neutered much of the bill, and some are accusing the Trudeau Liberals of either whipping the committee to match government policy, or plotting to send it back to the House of Commons where it could be lost forever.
**
Don't threaten. Do it, and do it now:
Saskatchewan's natural gas utility could face hefty fines for not remitting the carbon tax to the federal government, and its executives may also face jail for failing to do so, federal legislation says.
Premier Scott Moe announced this week that SaskEnergy would not remit the carbon tax on natural gas starting Jan. 1, unless Ottawa exempts the fuel.
Legal professors say if SaskEnergy doesn't remit the charges, it could face big consequences.
"The stakes are actually quite high for failing to remit the carbon tax," Gerard Kennedy, a law professor at the University of Alberta, said Tuesday.
"But that is not to say that it would necessarily escalate to that."
**
New Democrats will be supporting Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s motion to extend the temporary pause on the federal price on carbon to all forms of home heating, NDP House leader Peter Julian said Thursday.
**
The carbon tax is a tax on living. These discontented masses have every right to keep their homes warm during the winter:
Cabinet will have to “barrel on” through public complaints over the carbon tax, Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan said yesterday. Cabinet faces a Commons vote Monday on a motion to repeal the 12¢ per cubic metre tax for the majority of Canadian homeowners who heat with natural gas: ‘Everyday folks are just having trouble making things meet and looking for someone to blame.’
**
It's easy to be the rat fleeing sinking ship now.
Try doing that when it's hard:
Liberal MP Ken McDonald said he has no regrets for breaking ranks with his party on the carbon tax not once, but twice, and he isn’t ruling out doing it again next week.
The Conservatives are forcing a House vote on Monday on a non-binding motion calling on the government to broaden the temporary pause on the carbon tax for home heating oil, which mostly helps only the Atlantic provinces. The motion will ask the Trudeau government to extend the tax break to all heating fuels, including natural gas.McDonald, who represents the riding of Avalon in Newfoundland and Labrador, told the National Post Friday he was thankful for the carbon-tax holiday on home heating oil , but said there is more to do to help with the cost of living.“I don’t know if it alleviates all the fears of the people in my riding,” he said. “Affordability is still a big issue with or without the carbon tax on home heating fuel.”McDonald said people living in rural areas, like his constituents, often have no choice but to burn fuel to drive long distances for basic necessities.“I have people who drive two hours to buy groceries, or two and a half hours to have an appointment at a hospital or to visit a loved one at the hospital. So they don’t have options. There’s no bus service. There’s no subway, there’s no train,” he said.
Newfoundland has ALWAYS benefited from the Liberals.
Watch as McDonald gets paid off (in some figurative fashion) and supports this living tax.
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