Last Thursday, NDP leader Jack Layton spoke at a fundraiser for an Ottawa homeless shelter. Layton took the opportunity to slam Stéphane Dion and the Liberals for their election plank of imposing carbon taxes on Canadians. The socialist greenie incurred the wrath of his global warming co-religionists when he spoke out against taxing all Canadians in order to save the planet.
Dion’s proposed tax would result in huge price increases, most notably on the cost of home heating fuel. Layton reminded his audience that “… Canada is a cold place. Heating your home is not a choice”. This is a simple but true proposition that is easily forgotten by the environmentalist wackos (of which even Jack is one – usually) who care more about polar bears than they do about people.
It’s true that in order to even have a chance at doing well in the next election, the NDP have to separate themselves from not only the once mighty Liberals but the up and coming Green Party. Nonetheless, Layton is quite correct about the impact that Steffi’s planet-saving tax will have on lower income Canadians. Layton’s global warming solution is to go after corporations by capping their emissions and penalizing them for exceeding those caps. For a party that claims to be “progressive” that is so 1980s. Nonetheless, although the cost of these penalties will ultimately be passed along to consumers, its impact will be less than Dion’s plan that will dramatically increase the cost of heating homes.
Layton’s position points out the total hypocrisy that is a central feature of the Liberal Party of Canada. The Liberals claim to care about the poor; poor children, poor women, poor aboriginals and their favourites, poor recent immigrants. The Natural Governing Party has been promising to eradicate child poverty since the first poor Canadian child was discovered some time during the last century. Yet they are now willing to ignore the fact that these poor children will either spend our still cold Canadian winters without heat or see their milk money used to heat their homes. The Liberals couldn’t care less; as long as they can be seen to be doing something to reduce emissions. The difference between Dion’s proposals and those of the NDP is that raising taxes is easy. A monkey could be trained to increase taxes although if a monkey was heading the Liberal Party it would not bode well for Iggy and Bob Rae who have their sights set on the top job.
For those that have money, they will be able to heat their homes regardless of any drop in income taxes. As far as lower income Canadians, it cannot be assumed that any cash rebate that will be given to them will be used to heat their homes. What sounds good in theory will be different than the practice.
Implementing social engineering by increasing regressive tax policies is nothing new or unique. A good example is the tax on tobacco that is increased to huge proportions in order to deter Canadians from smoking (it is only incidental that the increased taxes happen to bring more money into government coffers). While there is undoubtedly some correlation between price and the amount smoked, people who smoke don’t double their consumption of cigarettes if the price is halved. Tobacco taxes are truly regressive and with each “healthy” price increase what becomes a minor inconvenience to those who are well off, they are catastrophic to low income smokers. No doubt many children do without after each “health saving” tax increase. Yet those who purport to care about the poor in our society couldn’t care less about the hardship that their tax policies put on lower income Canadians. They simply ignore those consequences and pat themselves on the back for what wonderful things they are doing about improving the health of the country’s citizens. Tobacco taxes are not unique in ignoring the effect that regressive taxation has on the poor. Ideology is more important than on the well being of lower income Canadians and their families.
A lot of people were shocked by the position that the NDP are taking on carbon taxes. In his wildest dreams, Steffi probably never believed that he would be attacked from the left for his planet-saving endeavours. The NDP’s policy on carbon taxes clearly shows just how out of touch the Liberals are when it comes to the lives of ordinary Canadians.
