Carbon Tax: the trap that isn't

Global writer Keith Baldrey penned an opinion piece on the coming storm regarding the carbon tax.

More than anything, it muses about the politics around the carbon levy and its future. My bet is that it isn't going anywhere. Both Justin Trudeau and John Horgan have little to be concerned about regarding the political noise being made around it.

The legal challenge.

Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan have filed a legal challenge to attempt to stop the federal government from imposing a carbon tax (in the absence of a provincial one) of up to $50/tonne once fully in place. The trouble is that the federal government, constitutionally, has no limit to what tax it can impose. Literally, in Article 91(3) it reads, "The raising of Money by any Mode or System of Taxation.". So if I was a betting man, this challenge doesn't go far.

The Confidence and Supply Agreement

The NDP and Green Party in BC signed a "CSA" in 2017 that put the NDP into office for the first time since 1996. Its effectively a coalition, but not really. The Green Party has proclaimed its right to oppose legislation not covered by the CSA and not generally a confidence vote. The carbon tax is central to this plan. The Greens campaigned on a far higher value than $50/tonne, but agreed to this term nonetheless.

The BC Liberals

BC Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson is in a bind here. It was his party in government that brought the North America's first carbon tax into existence. They'd look awfully silly to oppose it now. What's interesting, is that in the last gasp of the 16 year old BC Liberal government, to retain power - they proposed a throne speech that called for (you guessed it), a $50/tonne carbon tax. The notion was to convince the Green Party to sign on to a Christy Clark minority government and they'd get what they want. Surely this was approved by Andrew Wilkinson in the last days of his government.

Proper conclusion

NDP

The NDP howled with outrage when the idea of a carbon tax was floated by Premier Gordon Campbell in 2007; they coined the phrase, "Axe the Tax" regarding the proposal. Correctly detecting trends, Campbell saw an opening between old guard NDP'ers and new generation environmentalists. He struck accordingly. The right wing BC Liberals outflanked the NDP on the environment and won a new term: *on* the carbon tax. The NDP would not make that mistake again.

Politics

Sure, the huffing and puffing of right wing ideologues of the right (right now) are frothing at the mouth at the cabon tax. They see an angle to gin up support for a repeal of said tax. It may score some quick political points, but we cannot hide from climate change. The advent of more extreme weather, longer/hotter summers, more severe storms/hurricanes surely most prove that something is out of place. 

We are not out of the woods here. Its not just a carbon tax that will resolve the worlds climate crisis, but its a start. If the right wing believe they have a winning issue here, they are mistaken. There are far bigger issues to fight on, and given the affinity of younger, newer voters to give a shit about the environment; this trend isn't going away any time soon.

My 2 bits


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