The Cost of Carbon in Canada

If you haven’t already done so, meet David Suzuki.  He is Canada’s version of a more personable Al Gore.  Suzuki is the face of Canadian environmentalism and he is having a bad week in the wake of the Canadian elections.  Why?  The centerpiece of the Liberal party’s platform during the recent Canadian elections was a very expensive Green Shift carbon tax plan and the election results point towards a resistance among Canadians to embrace a massive new carbon tax.

In other words, common sense has prevailed in Canada!

At least a little bit, for now.

Conservative opposition to the Green Shift carbon tax plan outlined the terms of the political discourse early on in the election process and were able to pitch the tax as a massive tax rather than an environmental issue.  The election results do not necessarily mean that the tax won’t pass in the near future or that common sense will continue to prevail, but it offers a bit of hope and an important lesson for those of us who openly oppose oppressive obligations on our wallets in the form of environmental policies.  Shift the discussion to highlight the tax burden and huge price tag rather than letting the feel-good environmentalist arguments prevail.  The problem with feel-good environmentalist arguments is that they care little for the burden it places on people. Fiscal conservatives need to reconquer the language of the debate and rephrase it in real, economic terms.  We need to make people understand that the environmentalists are pushing for policies that are disastrously expensive and will cripple the U.S. economy and stifle future growth.

We simply can’t afford to lose this battle in the coming months and years.