Dear editor,
A Conservative MP Scott Aitchison from Parry Sound Muskoka riding recently held a rally to preach his and Pierre Poilievre’s rhetoric of “axing the tax.”
The carbon tax is no doubt a very contentious issue and sorting out what is fact and fiction is not an easy chore. What is easy to sort out is the fiction some of these politicians preach. When Scott Aitchison was asked what he and the Conservatives under the leadership of Pierre Poilievre would do to turn the tide on climate change, he stated we need to export more of our “clean” carbon based natural resources! For years the natural gas industry and now the Conservative and Liberal governments across Canada have been claiming that if we export more “clean” liquified gas for other countries to burn, that is the path to a cleaner environment and reduction in carbon. Really? Natural gas, propane, oil are all carbon based fuels. Exporting those fuels will do nothing to clean up our air or environment. Exporting these carbon based fuels will only compound the global carbon problem.
Scott Aitchison also stated emphatically that it does not matter what Canada does, it has no effect on the overall global carbon problem. Doug Ford today bragged that the steel industry in Ontario has been electrified which has taken a huge amount of carbon out of the process of making steel. As he bragged about that he did mention much to their credit it was the Federal government that provided the lion’s share of the money to these industries to convert to electricity. As the Ford government brags about their environmental record – which is abysmal – he does not talk about the gas fired power plants they want to bring on line to provide electricity to the grid. These gas fired power plants will add millions of tons of carbon to the problem once they come online. Many of the municipalities in Southern Ontario who will be breathing in the byproducts of these gas fired plants have objected only to be ignored by the Doug Ford government. Pierre Poilievre, when asked what is the Conservative plan to cut carbon production, his standard answer is they will develop and support technology to do so. His party has no plan except to support the oil and gas industry. What is it that recent and emerging Conservative governments have against the environment? To be quite blunt it seems they just don’t care. Alberta’s Conservative government under Danielle Smith wants to double Alberta’s oil production. She recently tried to stifle the development of renewable energy projects.
I certainly am not in favour of more taxes but reputable sources from many sectors of the banking sector and other business think tanks will tell you pricing carbon is the best way to curb our environmental crisis. The majority of economists will tell you your carbon rebate is more than you will pay in carbon taxing. I am not a big fan of Justin Trudeau and his government and now after two terms in office he is now promising to pull the plug on subsidizing the oil industry. He said he would do this in his first run for Prime Minister and did not deliver, but instead invested in an oil pipeline so oil producing provinces can export more oil. The cost of that pipeline to taxpayers initially started out at seven billion dollars and now has ballooned to 34 billion dollars.
So an election is looming likely within a couple of years and who will win? I would tell you that he who is the best liar and can tell the most lies will win. It is a proven fact that when the masses are told lies and those lies are repeated time and time again, people will believe the lies. The rise to power by Donald Trump in the USA and his continued support is proof of how the politics of lying works. It is a sad state of affairs to say the least, that when a politician’s career is more important than the truth and the kind of world we live in, there is not a lot of hope for the future.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
James Kimberley
Atikokan
