MARK MACDONALD
BRITISH COLUMBIA – Prior to Justin Trudeau becoming Prime Minister of Canada, he proclaimed that Canada’s economy is intricately linked to climate change.
Or as some others call it: The weather.
Somehow, and from some other universe, Trudeau continues to insist that increased gas taxes are going to preserve the environment, and reverse global warming.
It’s really an incredulous statement, but as the lead drummer, he pounds the message that is reverberated through state-funded media and publicly funded education to the point where many people don’t even question it.
That line of logic is more akin to superstition than science. People don’t generally put any stock in the ditty: “Step on a crack, break your mother’s back”, or any other such nursery-rhymish nonsense. But when it comes to climate change? Many don’t question the unscientific assumptions that paying at the pump with extra taxes saves the planet.
And as Canada tightens its socialist ambitions with increasing regularity and restrictions, one volcanic eruption creates more carbon than anything this entire country would in a nano-second. As China’s factories continue to belch out far more than its share of carbon, unchecked.
At the same time, nobody seems to ponder the possibility that carbon dioxide is regularly produced and necessary, through photosynthesis, for trees to turn that into oxygen. The intricacies and design of such an absolutely amazing creative machine are mind-blowing. The earth, as it turns out, does indeed have redemptive capabilities to regenerate and restore itself.
Trudeau’s carbon taxes are crippling the Canadian economy, and above anything else, it seems that this is their real strategy: Slowing down the Canadian economy is ultimately their plan to combat global warming/climate change. How can one come to that conclusion? Where are the federal-government technological advances being made that are making a difference in carbon creation? Other than subsidizing electric battery manufacturers elsewhere, what game-changing innovation derived from carbon tax funding has been introduced?
The truth is, the Trudeau government has demonized carbon created from oil and gas in much the same way as previous administrations fiscally punish tobacco and alcohol purchasers. It’s the “sin tax” of this generation, and evidently, people are somehow numbed into believing it’s okay to pay “a bit more” to ensure the future safety of the planet.
Except that “bit more” is hitting every sector of the economy, resulting in runaway inflation, rising food costs and anything connected to transportation.
There is a simple solution to the suffering: Eliminate the carbon tax. Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre is making serious political hay by promising exactly that, and polls show he should command a massive majority in the next federal election.
Trudeau could do the same. Cancel it. Will he? Absolutely not. He trumpets its benefits with almost religious fervor. Voters are now seeing through it.
The economy is not linked to climate change, or the weather, on its own. Trudeau has made it that way through the carbon tax, and he’s cornered himself.
If he backs off, he risks offending those that remain in his corner, and it would be an 180-degree turn from his raison d’etre. It would be an exercise in humility, a characteristic he does not seem to possess.
Canada is a beautiful, clean country. Economically, it has thrived because of its ability to provide natural resources to other jurisdictions, and the possibilities are endless if the ideological restrictions are, if not removed, at least slackened.
We sit on vast reserves above and below ground that other countries like Germany and Japan have come knocking for – including natural gas – but Trudeau has turned a blind eye to their cries.
Those responsibly and ethically produced revenues would help pay for important services the Canadian public demands, and cover some of the government’s major fiscal flaws. Revenue hides all warts, as they say.
Where is the next wave of revenue generation to come from? Can anyone see it coming over the horizon? Yet here the country sits on piles of unfathomable wealth, keeping other countries from what they need and want.
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Speaking of crimping investment, the Trudeau government’s increase in Capital Gains is one of the most destructive and short-sighted taxation moves yet.
While the feds rub their hands with glee at the prospect of such levies yielding billions of dollars in found revenue they can share on their own pet projects, the reality is this punitive tax aimed at “the haves”, i.e. investors, it ultimately affects the so-called “have-nots”, or the ones who benefit from those investments.
It is a massive removal of a basic necessity of investing: Incentive. Why would someone risk what they have to create something new and entering the world of risk? I have personally heard from people who now say “why bother?” With no reasonable return in sight, why even try to battle through endless bureaucracy to earn a paltry return. They’re better off keeping their money in bank stocks and live off the dividends, without sleepless night.
It’s another example of divisive, unnecessary political class warfare: Pitting one economic group against another.
Nobody wins this way: Investors, those who benefit from those investments in terms of jobs and created products, and the government at the end of the day, because they’ll receive less tax revenue than what they believed they’d receive when they made the decision in the first place.
Mark MacDonald is President of Communication Ink Media & Public Relations Ltd.: mark@communicationink.ca
