Canadians Remain Deeply Skeptical About Carbon Pricing

An Angus Reid poll in late April illustrates the lack of commitment to, and deep skepticism about, carbon pricing in Canada. Only one-third of Canadians "strongly support" Canada as a whole joining or forming a cap and trade system. No region of the country has a majority of strong support. Support is weakest among the western provinces and Ontario, and lowest overall in Alberta.

Even lower levels of support were seen for a national carbon tax. Just 24 percent of respondents strongly support a federal carbon tax in Canada. In the three prairie provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba), only 17 to 19 percent of the public wants to see a national carbon tax. These very low levels of support are seen across the country. Approximately half of respondents outright oppose their province implementing a carbon tax, including opposition at 46 and 47 percent, respectively, in British Columbia (BC) and Alberta -- two provinces who already have carbon taxes. This would suggest there is broad support in both these provinces for a repeal of existing carbon pricing schemes. Perhaps most surprising about the polling results is how little confidence the public has in either carbon taxation or a cap and trade system (the latter is simply another form of carbon taxation). Only 12 percent of all those surveyed thought a cap and trade system of carbon pricing would be very effective at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This level of skepticism was about evenly distributed across the nation. Just one-in-ten Canadians think a carbon tax would be very effective at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The lowest level of confidence was in BC at only 7 percent -- reflecting the fact that this province's residents are not fooled by the liberal pro-carbon tax propaganda surrounding BC's undeniably ineffective and economically damaging carbon tax. More than 60 percent of respondents nationally, and two-thirds of those in BC, think carbon taxation is either not very effective or not effective at all. Almost half the public thinks the federal government is either paying too much attention to climate change, or just the right amount. Nearly 60 percent of those queried feel their provincial government is already paying the right amount of, or too much, attention to the issue. Only 20 percent say that climate change and/or climate policy will be a deciding factor in this year's upcoming federal election. Furthermore, among all federal party leaders, the Conservative Party's Stephen Harper was chosen as the leader "best to deal with this issue."

Sierra Rayne——Bio and Archives

Sierra Rayne holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry and writes regularly on environment, energy, and national security topics. He can be found on Twitter at @srayne_ca