Liberal leader Stéphane Dion finally announced to no one’s surprise that a carbon tax will be a central part of the party’s platform during the next election campaign. Taxes will rise on such products as home heating oil (but not gasoline) to discourage Canadians from emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, not to mention discouraging them from heating their homes.
The Liberals, slick salesmen that they are (remember Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty promising Ontarians they wouldn’t pay one penny more in taxes) are touting that this new tax is revenue neutral. In other words, although taxes will go up in one area income taxes will decrease and some form of cash rebate will be given to lower income Canadians who pay little or no income tax. The phrase, revenue neutral, is much easier to say; even for Dion in his mangled English, than it is to work in practice.
Upon the announcement of his beloved carbon tax, the Liberal leader was quoted as saying, “
I am convinced that far too many political elites underestimate Canadians. When you speak to the minds and the big hearts of our great people, good policies translate into good politics. In fact, time and time again Canadians have been ahead of their politicians of knowing what is needed.”
It is very true that often the politicians do underestimate Canadians. This is certainly true for those in left wing parties who feel that people are incapable of looking after themselves and no matter how small, every problem that they face in life can only be solved by government. And it is also true that ordinary Canadians are often ahead of the government when it comes to recognizing issues. But who are the elites in this case? Is it those politicians, including Liberals in Dion’s own party, who genuinely feel that Canadians will not be enamored by this new tax? Or is Stéphane Dion and his supporters?
In this case, it is Dion who is the elitist. He simply does not understand either the general public or their mood. Yes people want to reduce greenhouse gases; the problem is that they, personally, don’t want to pay for it. If they did, the populace would be overjoyed at the rapidly rising price of gasoline. But somehow they aren’t. You don’t see any person-on-the-street interviews where the interviewee is jumping for joy at the thought of gasoline going to $2 a litre in the hopes that demand and consequently greenhouse gasses will be reduced. And no one seems particularly overjoyed at rising prices of food, airline flights and other commodities whose higher prices have been caused by an increased cost of fuel. But somehow the elites that are comprised of Dion and his supporters, not his detractors, think that Canadians will gladly accept higher prices and more importantly, higher taxes for the greater good. If this were in fact true, Liberal MP Dan McTeague would have to look to other ways to occupy his time. McTeague’s main purpose in life seems to be telling impatient Canadians what they will pay for gas on the following day. And, in the olden days, when gas prices actually dropped as well as increased, that never seemed to be worth mentioning. The message – high gas prices are a bad thing unlike higher home heating costs which apparently will be a good thing.
Let’s suppose that a carbon tax is brought in that is revenue neutral. The reality is that it is much easier to see an increase in monthly home heating bills than it is to calculate how much less in income taxes a person will pay. Only those who have the ability and the desire to do semi-complicated calculations will be able to ascertain the fact that the tax is indeed revenue neutral. Higher home heating bills are immediate increases. For most people, the added cost of heating their home will be the determinative factor in how they view this carbon tax. And with food, gasoline and other products increasing, they will not be the happy little campers that Steffi thinks they will be.
Those Liberals who don’t want to go into the next election on a platform of higher taxes on products such as home heating oil, are not the elites. It is Stéphane Dion who equates wanting a cleaner environment with a willingness to personally pay for it is the one who is the elitist; who cannot understand how the average Canadian views the world.
