Friday, October 26, 2018

How Canada's Cons Are Losing The Carbon Tax Battle



You might think that Andrew Scheer would tone down his anti-carbon tax rhetoric, now that Trudeau's new plan to fight climate change has been well received by most in the media.

But it seems that Scheer just can't help himself.

He has no plan of his own, but is still wallowing in his own planet burning excrement.



Even though as Campbell Clark points out, the Liberal plan is both good policy and good politics. 

Everything about climate-change policy in Canada right now is about electoral politics. There’s still a big, basic political decision to be made: Will Canadians take broad steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

And the Con arguments against it only amount to a desire to do nothing.

The Conservatives – both Andrew Scheer’s federal party and its provincial cousins, notably Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives – are dead set against a carbon tax and out to discredit it. That’s electoral politics, too. 

But the political arguments against, so far, haven’t really been about flaws in Mr. Trudeau’s emissions-reduction policy. Taken together, they amount to arguments against broad-based, emissions-reduction policies in general. They are arguments to do nothing.

Which in the times we live in can only be described as yet another example of Con climate change denial...



Or criminal negligence...



And for more evidence that the Cons are losing the carbon tax battle, there is also this endorsement from their usually very good friends at  the Business Council of Canada.

The Business Council of Canada welcomes the federal government’s announcement regarding its plan to implement carbon pricing in Canada. For many years we have advocated for carbon pricing as the most efficient means to contribute to achieving Canada’s climate change goals. 

Which couldn't be more embarrassing.

Of course, as David Roberts from Vox points out, Trudeau is gambling with his own future. 

It’s a risky gamble, to say the least. If it fails, liberals could lose control of the Canadian government. If it succeeds, Canada could vault into global leadership on climate change, with a national carbon reduction system that has few equals in scope or stringency. 

But Roberts believes it's a gamble worth taking, for the future of the planet.

On its own, Canada doesn’t account for much of the world’s carbon pollution, but as an example to other wealthy developed nations, its fate in coming years will carry enormous symbolic importance. It is fighting its own version of a battle — climate progressivism versus nationalist reactionaries — that is, on a larger scale, going to determine the fate of humanity.

And I believe it's also a brilliant political move.

For while Andrew Scheer deserves to be criticized as Elizabeth May does here.

Justin Trudeau is taking on the climate change deniers, and will be able to offer voters a real choice in the next election.

One that will appeal to the younger generation who will form the largest voting bloc in that election.

Do you want change, or do you want extinction?

Do you want a real prime minister, or a Con clown?



And it's not hard to imagine what the answer will be. 

The Cons have been caught in a trap of their own making.

And it will destroy them...

17 comments:

Steve said...

Keeping my fingers crossed. Although given the scorched earth campaign that Harper lost, weak andy should be a cakewalk. He will not answer a simple question on anything.

Anonymous said...

"For many years we have advocated for carbon pricing as the most efficient means to contribute to achieving Canada’s climate change goals."
Coming from the BCOC has to be comparable to a kick in the balls for our most vocal fossil fools, Ford and Scheer. The more they rail against a carbon tax, the more people are becoming aware that for now, it is the way to go.
It'll only get worse for Dioxide Doug and Clueless Andy as they are all in on their charades completely. As they continue to dig their own political graves I have to raise my glass of a buck fifty a beer to them and say, "Keep up the good work boys".
JD

Anonymous said...

Cons, especially those of the religious persuasion dislike science because it runs counter to their preordained beliefs. They essentially distrust all science but as a main political party have to remain silent on the well established parts and have to be content with attacking anything viewed as emerging. In their view climate science fits the profile plus it can also be viewed as divine retribution for lack of faith and man mucking around in areas that do not concern him. Scheers problem is that he is more than willing to jump on the anti science bandwagon but when pressed he cannot state that observed events are divine retribution. Hence the waffling and the smirk.
Max is not in the religious camp on this issue. His denial stems from the belief that intellectuals especially of the scientific cult have made things way too complicated and that practical leaders supported by simplistic thinking people need to take charge and reset the course to a time when things were simpler (but unfortunately more miserable and deadly). At least those on the deep right now have a political choice, one motivated by a closet religious agenda or an egotistical simple minded one!
RT

Steve said...

cons dislike science because its factual

Anonymous said...

Scheer continues to show why he is unfit to run for dog catcher let alone Prime Minister of Canada. Climate change is THE issue whether he likes it or not, and his failure to deal with it is indeed criminal.

Jackie Blue said...

I'm waiting for Andy and Jason to go full Pat Robertson and do the usual blaming of wildfires, droughts and of course flooding of Biblical proportions on gays, loose women, and now devil-weed smokers. When dead lobsters start showing up on the shoreline, Jordan Peterson can chime in to blame coastal erosion on the "pansexual, progressive, postmodernist PC pronoun police." Max will concur, and blame his own "PP problems" on the same. Followed by Faith Goldy to sum up the root of the right-wing mindset in 14 words or less: everything "Justin Judeau" does is a Khazarian Mafia plot to take over the world. Are you pondering what I'm pondering? Today's Conservative Party is all Pinky... and no Brain!

Jackie Blue said...

"Dioxide Doug," I love it. Hasn't anybody told him that climate change is going to adversely impact his precious booze futures? No matter, I suppose he'll just ask Trump to ship bottles of Russian hooker pee across the border in a fleet of coal-fired 18-wheelers to own the Libs. Worst remake of Smokey & The Bandit ever.

Anonymous said...

I love Elizabeth May's description of Andrew Scheer. The "cowardly spotlight of uselessness." He is cowardly, he is useless, and our only consolation is that he is heading for a fall. Climate change will not go away, and can only get worse, and as you say Simon, it will be what brings the Cons down.

Anonymous said...

In Scheers religious Con world disasters of all types support the view that that science is a failure and the higher power is doling out punishment because of the moral decay. Max just doesn't know what he doesn't know and too self assured to even try finding out. Dire choices but I prefer Max.
RT

Simon said...

Hi Steve....it won’t be a cakewalk. Scheer May be weak but he is also dirty, and you can be sure that him and his Cons will use every foul trick in the book to try to win. We are going to have to fight the Cons harder than we ever have before...

Simon said...

Hi JD...Yes, having the Business Council endorse the Liberal plan must have left Scheer on the floor getting fanned by his flunkies. But then what do the Cons expect? They don’t have a plan to fight climate change themselves, and without they are hooped. Climate change is too big an issue to simply ignore or think they can bullshit their way out of. They are indeed caught in a trap of their own making, and I can’t see how they are going to get out of it. Please remind me to send flowers to their funeral...😿

Simon said...

Hi RT...I thought that nothing the Cons could say would surprise me, but when Scheer dismissed the work of the Nobel prize winner I was stunned. And like you I have to believe that his religious fanaticism has something to do with it. It’s beyond belief, and one can only hope that Canadians are not stupid or greedy enough to let them get away with it. As for Max, I see his latest tweets has him accusing progressives of not knowing the difference between carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide. After that I had to lie down and fan myself. I have to support him so he can split the Con vote but it’s not easy...🙄

Simon said...

Hi Jackie...They are quite a collection aren’t they ? They remind of the Batman villains with each one freakier that the next one. When I wandered down the street a while back to check out Faith Goldy’s mini rally I was struck by the number of absolute losers. It was truly pathetic. But it only reinforced my belief that the good people are going to win. These are difficult times, but the future does belong to us...

Simon said...

Hi Jackie...Dougie is looking like he’s been inhaling a little too much carbon dioxide. He’s looking very bagged out and I’m not surprised. He’s never had to work so hard in his life, and I honestly wonder whether he is going to be able to last a full term. Whenever I think that I’m not going to be able to stand four years of Ford, I think of that and I feel better..
😀

Simon said...

Hi anon...yes, Scheer doesn’t seem to understand that climate change is an issue like no other, and all his bullshit only make him look like an idiot or a maniac. He’s digging himself into such a deep hole I don’t see how he is ever going to get out..

Simon said...

Hi anon...yes it was a great description wasn’t it? The cowardly spotlight of uselessness. For far too long Scheer has been allowed to get away with murder, and it’s time somebody called him out. I have sometimes wondered whether I was being too harsh on Scheer, so I am glad to see that I am not alone...

e.a.f. said...

Guess Scheer is older than we think he is. there is a group of young people, headed by a young man in Oregon who is taking the American government to court over their rolling back EPA standards and not doing enough for climate change. He is 23 and his rationale is, most politicians in the U.S.A. who oppose dealing with climate change will be dead in 20/30 years. However, people his age will still be alive and want to stay alive.

So yes, climate change is a real issue for those who will still be alive in 50 years. I'm going to be dead, but I'd like to think my friends' Grandchildren, who I live dearly, will still be alive and well because, we the aging baby boomers and Gen. Xers dealt with the issue now. if we don't about the only people live in 50 years will be the financial elites and their serfs.

the polar bears can not continue to survive in the current conditions. if you don't care about humans, at least do it for the polar bears, whales, and penguins.