We should all be embarrassed that we've let shameless politics kill a system that cost-effectively reduces pollution and ensures the poorest are overwhelmingly made better off.
The messaging was never good on this program and therefore got defined for you by the opposition. It may have been a better angle to make it a fund for paying for the actual cost of climate related events, forest fires, floods, etc. Most people couldn’t see the point it.
Thanks for your post Nathan. Accurate and appreciate your willingness to call out the hypocrisy of the Conservatives and your Liberal colleagues who now have abandoned the CT.
The Federal CT/Rebate scheme was too slick by half - as Canadians were too stupid to know where that deposit to their back account came from and even if they did, or once they found out, could not recognize that something like 70% would have received more in the rebate than they paid in the tax - which Trudeau et Co were afraid to call it a CT and came up with some artificial name that everyone forgot - including me and could not relate it to the CT. Sometime what communication spin doctors strategy comes back to bite you on the ass.
Had they levied the tax clearly, and indicated that the revenues would be offset by various subsidies and initiatives for people to buy EV's and Hybrids and insulate their homes better and install heat pumps and expand and improve public transit - things that people could see and feel, it would have been far more effective.
The government's failure to eliminate the regulatory subsidies to SUV and light trucks (lower safety standards and fuel efficiency standards less stringent than for passenger cars) and failure to tax these gas guzzlers and public safety hazards on the road (SUV's and half-tons that are higher and heavier than sedans cause more deadly and costly accidents), has meant that Half-tons and SUV sales now dominate the new vehicle sales stats and have for about a dozen years if not longer.
Here in BC, the NDP had the good sense to eliminate the "revenue neutral" aspect of our CT and have put the money into subsidies for Heat Pumps, solar panels, public transit, home efficiency upgrades, EV;s and Hybrids, etc. It has always had public support - although that is sliding because of constant attacks against the CT by Poilievre and Conservatives nationally and in BC and now federal LIberal candidates abandoning it.
What's this say about Canadians? And our efforts and responsibility to reduce emissions? Are we as stupid as Americans??
Thanks for having the courage to expose this lack of political courage.
I do think it's unfortunate that we're going to lose the carbon tax, but I think it's a very smart on the potential liberal leaders part to drop it. Specifically I think Carney saying it is become two divisive is exactly right. Drop it move on to the next thing. Who knows maybe it can be reintroduced with better education around what it does and how it works.
The liberals failed to communicate how the Carbon Tax worked. I spend a lot of time consuming news and I still couldn’t explain it to anyone who benefits and how. We need leaders who take the time to explain. PP had all kinds of YouTubers explaining in detail why it didn’t work and they made sense. I’ll I know is that there was lots of talks about it motivating alternatives but still, I didn’t see any political party at any level of government developing a strategy for that alternative.
People prefer simplicity. The Carbon Rebate program is/was complex, and Poilievre's lies just made it worse. I get a fair amount back from this rebate, but I still prefer that it didn't exist at all. Earlier, PM Trudeau asked for a better solution. I replied, and stated that if you forced consumers to watch a 1 minute video at the pumps before filling up with fuel, then they'd get the message that way. Down the road, you could make it 2 minutes, then 3...bad enough that people would want the "Carbon Tax" back! I am skeptical about carbon dioxide being the main cause of global warming. The massive shift of magnetic north, and the rise in methane pollution, is what I would blame weather anomalies on. However, I'm just an observer, so what do I know...
We won't lose them is what I heard in the interview but Nate seems to think we will. If the Liberals can't get their shit together right now we have no hope
Actually, "The poorest now being worse off" is the lesser of the more compelling omens. Indeed, that the corporate rich (masquerading as "conservatives") would vividly blight their children and grandkids with a horrific, if not apocalyptic, future bespeaks of their diabolical present!
History has documented several cataclysmic eras, begotten by similarly evil leaders. But fortunately, history has also chronicled respite, if not relief, from other near-brink calamities.
Minister Nate Erskine-Smith is now entrusted with this rare opportunity to stem another blightening of humanity. Will the masses fight the deliberately-confusing din that Canada's avarice-laden pols, and their largely-accomplice "no-warming" media propagate, and help Nate save not himself, but this society?
The messaging was never good on this program and therefore got defined for you by the opposition. It may have been a better angle to make it a fund for paying for the actual cost of climate related events, forest fires, floods, etc. Most people couldn’t see the point it.
Thanks for your post Nathan. Accurate and appreciate your willingness to call out the hypocrisy of the Conservatives and your Liberal colleagues who now have abandoned the CT.
The Federal CT/Rebate scheme was too slick by half - as Canadians were too stupid to know where that deposit to their back account came from and even if they did, or once they found out, could not recognize that something like 70% would have received more in the rebate than they paid in the tax - which Trudeau et Co were afraid to call it a CT and came up with some artificial name that everyone forgot - including me and could not relate it to the CT. Sometime what communication spin doctors strategy comes back to bite you on the ass.
Had they levied the tax clearly, and indicated that the revenues would be offset by various subsidies and initiatives for people to buy EV's and Hybrids and insulate their homes better and install heat pumps and expand and improve public transit - things that people could see and feel, it would have been far more effective.
The government's failure to eliminate the regulatory subsidies to SUV and light trucks (lower safety standards and fuel efficiency standards less stringent than for passenger cars) and failure to tax these gas guzzlers and public safety hazards on the road (SUV's and half-tons that are higher and heavier than sedans cause more deadly and costly accidents), has meant that Half-tons and SUV sales now dominate the new vehicle sales stats and have for about a dozen years if not longer.
Here in BC, the NDP had the good sense to eliminate the "revenue neutral" aspect of our CT and have put the money into subsidies for Heat Pumps, solar panels, public transit, home efficiency upgrades, EV;s and Hybrids, etc. It has always had public support - although that is sliding because of constant attacks against the CT by Poilievre and Conservatives nationally and in BC and now federal LIberal candidates abandoning it.
What's this say about Canadians? And our efforts and responsibility to reduce emissions? Are we as stupid as Americans??
Thanks for having the courage to expose this lack of political courage.
I do think it's unfortunate that we're going to lose the carbon tax, but I think it's a very smart on the potential liberal leaders part to drop it. Specifically I think Carney saying it is become two divisive is exactly right. Drop it move on to the next thing. Who knows maybe it can be reintroduced with better education around what it does and how it works.
Also, thanks for calling a duck and duck. Please keep it up. We need clarity amongst the confusion.
The liberals failed to communicate how the Carbon Tax worked. I spend a lot of time consuming news and I still couldn’t explain it to anyone who benefits and how. We need leaders who take the time to explain. PP had all kinds of YouTubers explaining in detail why it didn’t work and they made sense. I’ll I know is that there was lots of talks about it motivating alternatives but still, I didn’t see any political party at any level of government developing a strategy for that alternative.
People prefer simplicity. The Carbon Rebate program is/was complex, and Poilievre's lies just made it worse. I get a fair amount back from this rebate, but I still prefer that it didn't exist at all. Earlier, PM Trudeau asked for a better solution. I replied, and stated that if you forced consumers to watch a 1 minute video at the pumps before filling up with fuel, then they'd get the message that way. Down the road, you could make it 2 minutes, then 3...bad enough that people would want the "Carbon Tax" back! I am skeptical about carbon dioxide being the main cause of global warming. The massive shift of magnetic north, and the rise in methane pollution, is what I would blame weather anomalies on. However, I'm just an observer, so what do I know...
Well said! Somehow we let the Overton window shift to shut out this policy.
thank you for saying this!!!
Agree. But ... If Liberals want to win as many seats as possible, "politics", as you said, they had to neutralize PP's main argument.
Carney stated we would not lose our rebates. Why are you saying we will
I don't think so
We won't lose them is what I heard in the interview but Nate seems to think we will. If the Liberals can't get their shit together right now we have no hope
Thanks for this.
Actually, "The poorest now being worse off" is the lesser of the more compelling omens. Indeed, that the corporate rich (masquerading as "conservatives") would vividly blight their children and grandkids with a horrific, if not apocalyptic, future bespeaks of their diabolical present!
History has documented several cataclysmic eras, begotten by similarly evil leaders. But fortunately, history has also chronicled respite, if not relief, from other near-brink calamities.
Minister Nate Erskine-Smith is now entrusted with this rare opportunity to stem another blightening of humanity. Will the masses fight the deliberately-confusing din that Canada's avarice-laden pols, and their largely-accomplice "no-warming" media propagate, and help Nate save not himself, but this society?