Attention U.S. House Members: Canadian politicians who endorsed a carbon tax are being voted out of office, and even liberal provinces are in revolt as tensions over Trudeau’s carbon tax mount
As Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tries to impose a federal carbon tax, voters are kicking carbon-tax-endorsing politicians out of office, provinces are rising up in opposition, and tensions are running high as Trudeau meets with premiers at their annual conference this week. The carbon tax is so toxic that it is shaping up to be the defining issue of the 2019 elections.
U.S. House members — especially Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) — would be wise to consider the following:
On June 7, due to her support for a carbon tax Liberal Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne went down in the worst defeat of a governing party in modern Ontario history. Liberal Wynne was in favor of a carbon tax and decisively lost to the conservative Doug Ford, who ran on abolishing the carbon tax. Ford made an explicit, written promise to the voters that he would end the carbon tax if elected.
Ford’s opposition to the carbon tax was decisive, and on June 15 Ford followed through: “I made a promise to the people that we would take immediate action to scrap the cap-and-trade carbon tax and bring their gas prices down,” said Ford. “Today, I want to confirm that as a first step to lowering taxes in Ontario, the carbon tax’s days are numbered.”
Ontario is Canada’s most populous province, and Ford’s repeal of the carbon tax sets up a confrontation with Trudeau.
Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe opposes the carbon tax. Moe said that the province will go to court to fight federal carbon tax. “You’ll see others realize that this is a flawed policy. It doesn’t reduce emissions, it costs people in the province money and it costs our industries competitiveness,” Moe said.
In Alberta, Jason Kenney is likely to become the next Premier, campaigning aggressively against a carbon tax in advance of the 2019 election. “The carbon tax is all economic pain, and no environmental gain,” he said.
Manitoba is suing the federal government over the carbon tax. “I have a simple message for Ottawa today — back off or we’ll see you in court,” said Premier Brian Pallister in April.
The province of Prince Edward Island is “fighting for Islanders” against the Trudeau carbon tax.
United Conservatives won Alberta byelections. Laila Goodridge has been elected Member of the Legislative Assembly of Fort McMurray-Conklin with over 65.9% of the votes by fighting against a carbon tax. “Tonight, voters overwhelmingly rejected the NDP’s carbon tax, their smear and tax hike agendas,” said Goodridge.
Another victory for the anti-carbon-tax movement was the win of conservative Devin Dreeshen. He won the Innisfail-Sylvan Lake byelection. “They voted by huge numbers to send this failed NDP government a message that you’re living on borrowed time and next year we’re going to fire this NDP government and scrap their carbon tax to get Alberta’s economy back on track.”
Canadian farmers are using social media to bring the anti-carbon-tax message to Trudeau. “By 2022 the average crop farmer will owe $20,000 a year. My farm seeded 2,100 acres this year and we are not considered large by any means in our area. That means we would owe $30,000” said a young farmer.
“Two years ago, things were looking bleak, with most Canadian politicians succumbing to international pressure to implement carbon taxes across the country,” said Scott Hennig, Vice President of Communications at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, in a statement to ATR. “But these same politicians weren’t listening to Canadians. Polls have consistently shown at least half, and often two-thirds of Canadians oppose expensive carbon taxes. Today, the tide is turning and we’re beginning to win the war against carbon taxes. I wouldn’t want to be Prime Minister Trudeau and have to run for re-election on the record of having implemented a job-killing carbon tax.”
The conservative former prime minister Stephen Harper put it this way:
“No matter what the Liberal media and others my say, there is nowhere in the world that a carbon tax is popular. It becomes more unpopular when it’s passed. And it becomes more unpopular every single day it is in existence. So I say, let the other guys do a carbon tax because we can all win the next federal and provincial elections on that issue alone.”