Whisper
July 17th, 2008, 05:02 AM
Stephane Dion is learning the old adage about what happens while the cat's away. In recent days, the Liberal leader has been doing the editorial board circuit and touring western Canada, trying to sell Canadians on his Green Shift carbon tax scheme. In his absence, three members of his caucus have been undermining the boss's message. Though they've put themselves in Mr. Dion's bad books, the trio has inadvertently done Canadians a service by deflating their leader's misleading PR.
To be sure, the Green Shift would be hard to defend. Nowhere in its nearly 50 pages do the Liberals actually explain how their proposed new taxes would stop global warming. Far more space is given over to how Mr. Dion and his party intend to spend the new green taxes on expensive social engineering schemes.
Moreover, while a lot of ink is devoted to the plan's alleged revenue-neutrality, there is no mention of its regional inequity. By placing the tax burden for carbon emissions on energy producers rather than the consumers, Mr. Dion is making westerners pay for his eco-fantasies. The cost to families in energy-producing provinces would be $6,000 per year, vs. $1,300 per family in the rest of the country. Indeed, the plan looks like nothing more than the old Liberal ploy of buying votes in central and eastern Canada with money squeezed from westerners.
Last Thursday, Ken Boshcoff, Liberal MP for Thunder Bay-Rainy River, admitted as much. In a blog post, Mr. Boshcoff proudly said the Green Shift was in reality "the most aggressive anti-poverty program in 40 years," designed to "transfer wealth from the oil patch to the rest of the country." Environmental protection was an afterthought next to taking billions annually "from the coffers of big business to the pockets of low-income Canadians."
For western Canadians, Mr. Boshcoff's words are eerily reminiscent of Marc Lalonde, architect of the hated National Energy Program (NEP), who once admitted the NEP was first and foremost a way to prevent a "fiscal imbalance between the provinces" -- i. e., Alberta -- "and the federal government."
Halton, Ont. Liberal MP Garth Turner made a similar point last week, albeit in a far more vulgar and juvenile manner. When the Green Shift encountered stiff opposition in the west, Mr. Turner -- who Mr. Dion had mistakenly recruited to help publicize the plan -- started seeing imaginary separatists everywhere in the region. He then bragged on his blog about how his leader, Mr. Dion, having once stood up to the "self-aggrandizing, hostile, me-first, greedy, macho, selfish and balkanizing separatist losers in Quebec," was prepared to "do it again in Alberta."
But perhaps most damaging were revelations made in early July by Martha Hall Findlay, Liberal MP for the suburban Toronto riding of Willowdale and her party's associate finance critic. Speaking to a garden party for the Cornwall-area Liberal riding association, the onetime leadership aspirant admitted that despite all the controversy her party has touched off with the Green Shift, there is no way of knowing how much, if any, impact it will have on the environment.
It is impossible to calculate emission reduction numbers right now, she said, "because energy prices have gone up so much, we don't know how the shift will affect consumption." Given the scope of the Liberal plan -- new taxes totalling $16-billion per year, and the possibility of a reawakening of regional alienation-- that's quite a shocking admission.
Mr. Dion can't be pleased with his loose-lipped caucus. But we are happy: The Green Shift is a threat both to Canada's economy and its unity. In tearing the Liberal blueprint down, we're glad to have (unwitting) help from people on the inside.
....I'm so glad I voted conservative
To be sure, the Green Shift would be hard to defend. Nowhere in its nearly 50 pages do the Liberals actually explain how their proposed new taxes would stop global warming. Far more space is given over to how Mr. Dion and his party intend to spend the new green taxes on expensive social engineering schemes.
Moreover, while a lot of ink is devoted to the plan's alleged revenue-neutrality, there is no mention of its regional inequity. By placing the tax burden for carbon emissions on energy producers rather than the consumers, Mr. Dion is making westerners pay for his eco-fantasies. The cost to families in energy-producing provinces would be $6,000 per year, vs. $1,300 per family in the rest of the country. Indeed, the plan looks like nothing more than the old Liberal ploy of buying votes in central and eastern Canada with money squeezed from westerners.
Last Thursday, Ken Boshcoff, Liberal MP for Thunder Bay-Rainy River, admitted as much. In a blog post, Mr. Boshcoff proudly said the Green Shift was in reality "the most aggressive anti-poverty program in 40 years," designed to "transfer wealth from the oil patch to the rest of the country." Environmental protection was an afterthought next to taking billions annually "from the coffers of big business to the pockets of low-income Canadians."
For western Canadians, Mr. Boshcoff's words are eerily reminiscent of Marc Lalonde, architect of the hated National Energy Program (NEP), who once admitted the NEP was first and foremost a way to prevent a "fiscal imbalance between the provinces" -- i. e., Alberta -- "and the federal government."
Halton, Ont. Liberal MP Garth Turner made a similar point last week, albeit in a far more vulgar and juvenile manner. When the Green Shift encountered stiff opposition in the west, Mr. Turner -- who Mr. Dion had mistakenly recruited to help publicize the plan -- started seeing imaginary separatists everywhere in the region. He then bragged on his blog about how his leader, Mr. Dion, having once stood up to the "self-aggrandizing, hostile, me-first, greedy, macho, selfish and balkanizing separatist losers in Quebec," was prepared to "do it again in Alberta."
But perhaps most damaging were revelations made in early July by Martha Hall Findlay, Liberal MP for the suburban Toronto riding of Willowdale and her party's associate finance critic. Speaking to a garden party for the Cornwall-area Liberal riding association, the onetime leadership aspirant admitted that despite all the controversy her party has touched off with the Green Shift, there is no way of knowing how much, if any, impact it will have on the environment.
It is impossible to calculate emission reduction numbers right now, she said, "because energy prices have gone up so much, we don't know how the shift will affect consumption." Given the scope of the Liberal plan -- new taxes totalling $16-billion per year, and the possibility of a reawakening of regional alienation-- that's quite a shocking admission.
Mr. Dion can't be pleased with his loose-lipped caucus. But we are happy: The Green Shift is a threat both to Canada's economy and its unity. In tearing the Liberal blueprint down, we're glad to have (unwitting) help from people on the inside.
....I'm so glad I voted conservative