Iggy Takes Credit for the Carbon Tax.

A blast from the past on this the first day of Ignatieff week here in Canada.

Here we have Iggy commenting on how he was the first one to suggest a carbon tax and how he still believes in a carbon tax.*








*depending on what day it is this opinion may have changed.

A Party of Principle: The B.C NDP.

"Already, previously NDP-friendly environmental organizations such as the David Suzuki Foundation and the Pembina Institute have denounced the NDP's plan..."


Read more here.

Who said it?

Who said it: “As a politician you need to find policy that doesn’t kill you at the door because I can’t do anything for you unless I get into government.”

Bonus clue. He also said the following in regards to the green shift: It will be easy to sell at the door in my riding. The less you burn the more you'll earn.


ht/bluelikeyou

Stephane Dion calls it a lie, but really who is the one doing the nose stretcher here?

Stephane Dion has been calling the PM a liar for the last couple of days because he does not like the way that his carbon tax has been treated by the Conservatives. It all boils down to the fact that Conservatives are not talking about the tax breaks that are going to be offered up by Dion's plan and Mr. Dion is not happy.

Well there is a good reason for that Stephane, because in the policy you are proposing, in this case it might be better referred to as bait and shift, those tax cuts are not going to even come close to the costs that the average taxpayer is going to have to shell out because of this twisted piece of bad policy.

The cost of EVERYTHING is going to go up, and if you want to talk truth why are you not telling Canadians that little fact about the fallout of your carbon tax?


Look at the following example with the results from the Liberal Green Shift calculator.

Joe makes 50K a year, lives in Alberta, is single and inherited his home.

He will get back $337 a year from those touted tax breaks under Dion's carbon tax. ( if he lived in Quebec he would only get back $282!! I wonder how many people in Quebec are aware of that little fact).

According to the Liberals: Joe is going to have to pay about $250 more to heat his home next year due to direct increases from the carbon tax leaving $87 dollars left over. But don't go out celebrating and buy up all that beer and popcorn just yet Joe, because you have not yet figured out how much more your electricity bill will be going up and the Liberal DO NOT even have an estimate for that. Any wagers that it will be well over the $87 dollars that Joe has left over?

A safe guess would be that the increase would be approaching that of his natural gas bill at around the $250 dollar mark*

So Joe gets hit with a $500 increase to his utility bills and now is $163 in the red. (The official colour of the Liberal Party of Canada BTW).

But we cannot stop there, oh no, because now Joe is going to be faced with cost increases from all over.

His property taxes are going to go up, estimate another $200 as municipalities try to recover their own massive cost increases for both heat and power. Damn city; do we really need public transit, those street lights on all night, our pools and facility buildings heated, roads plowed in winter or even to have our police or sanitation workers driving around in those costly vehicles? It is insane I tell you.

Provincial taxes would go up for many of the same reasons outlined above as well as a few more as the schools, universities, and hospitals come running to them to cover their carbon tax related cost increases.

The costs on food and consumer goods will go up as their shipping and manufacturing costs increase and the stores themselves pass on their own utility increases on to the consumer. This is already a given, but there is another reason that we can expect to see the price of everything increase and for that look to what happens to Joe next.

So poor Joe, who believed Dion and voted Liberal is now so far into the hole on this that he has to go to his boss and ask for a raise, as do all those others who work beside him. Joe's boss gives him and his fellow employees that raise, but now has to pass on these new added wage costs along with the direct cost increases that he is already paying on carbon tax to his customers causing his prices to raise.

Out of control inflation anyone?

It is a good thing Joe has a job. Imagine what this will do to the real poor in this country who can least afford it.



Mr. Dion; the next time that you speak about how those mean Conservatives do not talk about your tax cuts, please be honest with Canadians and tell them the real lie that those tax cuts are not even going to cover the known cost increases caused by your carbon tax, and certainly will not be enough to cover the many yet unknown cost increases that are sure to follow.


Poor Joe, poor Canada; and all for an environment plan that will DO NOTHING to reduce our GHG emissions.





*By taking only the top 7 electric generation facilities in Alberta with their 2004 CO2 emission numbers and multiplying that by $40.00/tonne you get a low estimate of the real cost to Alberta facilities coming out at over 4 billion dollars. With a population of 3.5 million people that comes out to $1200 per Albertan! So I figure $250 is a reasonable and realistic number for calculating on a per home basis what the average power bill would raise under Dion's carbon tax. The Liberals haven't even bothered to try and figure this number out, or at least they are not telling us about it if they did.

Liberal candidate Bob Friesen joins Martha Hall Findlay

Liberal candidate Bob Friesen joins Martha Hall Findlay and even leader Stephane Dion in admitting that the Liberals have no idea if the Green Shift will reduce CO2 emissions.

From the Winnipeg Sun: "It might not change behaviour," Friesen acknowledged during the debate.

Well, if it's not going to change behaviour, then it's just a straight tax grab."

Dr. Dion's prescription for an ailing economy.

Take this green pill* and call me in 30 days.

------

*Pharmaceutical Monograph:

NOTE: Not recommended for use in bad economic times or to help the poor.

Side effects:

Will pull 40 billion dollars out of the pockets of Canadians.

May not harmonize with existing carbon taxes.

Will harm the auto and manufacturing sectors.

Will cause inflation.

Will not actually reduce CO2 or come close to meeting Kyoto targets.

Will not be revenue neutral.

Will put an unfair burden on Canadian business.

Will cause trading partners great discomfort and possibly spark a trade war.

Will cause the price of EVERYTHING to go up.

Will not create jobs and may in fact eliminate jobs.

Will increase the cost of gasoline.

May cause stock prices to tumble.

Will create much increased regional discomfort and possible spontaneous amputation of same.

Will not really do anything at all to help the economy, but will raise money for Liberal spending schemes.

Will harm those that can least afford it. (The poor and those on fixed incomes or pensions)

"Like Tim Hortons distancing itself from the doughnut."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper: “Stéphane Dion distancing himself from the Green Shift is like Tim Hortons distancing itself from the doughnut."


Bob Fife video here on Dion shifting away from his green shift. Who would have guessed.

Missing: The Green Shift

Dion's carbon tax was noticeably absent yesterday from the campaign trail as Dion talked about anything but his tax grabbing non environmental plan.

A new strategy or just abandoning a lost cause?

Today will be the key; that is if we see Dion out campaigning at all since the Liberals not only seem to be abandoning the greenshift but Dion as well.

Now that might be a winning strategy.

Free Seminar: How to make money with the Liberal carbon tax:

Dear blog reader: Do you want to be rich?

Dear reader this is your chance to learn the secrets that can make your life easier and bring in wealth beyond your wildest dreams all with the help of Stephane Dion's carbon tax. (as a special bonus today I offer a free sneak peek of one of our most basic and popular secrets. One of many that what you will learn by taking part in our exclusive seminar. Keep reading)

Our highly sought after program will teach you all that you really need to know to profit in Canada under such a repressive tax system as the Green Shift. While the rest of the population suffers under the weight of it all, you can come out ahead by applying the simple lessons learned at our exclusive seminar. But you must respond today to ensure entry.

By confirming your reservation now I will guarantee your seat at an exclusive financial seminar to be held in your area in the near future; probably at some seedy hotel out near the airport.


Here is just a small selection of available sessions:

Tax planning: Businesses really do not pay taxes. (at least with their own money)

Sending cash to your brother in law and claiming it as 'Green R&D' (sold out)

Hidden opportunities: Thriving in the black market.

Unfair disadvantage: Selling your stock in Canadian companies before the tax hits.

New business ideas: How to set up a "millions of new green jobs" employment agency.

Specialized training: The believable shoulder shrug.

The Gore: Buying carbon credits from yourself.

Investment Opportunities: Buying farmland, trucks, and fishing boats cheap.

and many many more!


This is the chance of a lifetime to get ahead of the curve and profit from Dion's Carbon tax. Seating is limited and if you want to guarantee your place you must confirm your space now.

Operators are standing by.

--------------------------------------------------------

As promised a sneak peak at our most popular session; Pass it on and then some*.

Everyone is expecting prices to raise under a carbon tax as your own and every other business passes on the increased costs to the consumer; this is expected and should not be a surprise to anyone. (see tax planning session B)

Example A . ' Your Product ' currently retails for $10 and this allows for a $2 profit. With your carbon tax hit passed on to the customer (already expected by the consumer) the new selling price will have to raise to $12.50 to maintain the current profit margin.

So why not take advantage of the expected increases and tack an a few extra bucks for yourself? In our example why not tack on another $1.50 for a new retail price of $14.00?

Your customers will complain and they will not be happy but you now have the option of just shrugging your shoulders, blaming the Liberals and counting your record profits.

*Prerequisite: Believable shoulder shrug.

Remember, this is just a short example of what you can learn at our exclusive seminar. Call now and I will see you soon.

Dion to Harmonize Greenshift with B.C. Carbon tax.

Well that didn't take long. If the clip I saw tonight on the CBC National News is accurate, Stephane Dion says that he will harmonize his carbon tax with the oh so popular B.C. provincial carbon tax. (update: confirmed Dion did say he would harmonize the 2 taxes)

Here is the clip from CBC. Tell me if what I am hearing is wrong when Dion answers a question from a young gentleman asking about B.C. being punished with double carbon taxes.

That sounds like he said he would harmonize to me. Policy on the fly or was this in Dion's play book all along?

It is hard to tell what is going on as Dion has already claimed not to have spoken with Premier Campbell on this subject, even though the Premier had said the opposite, and this is by far not the first time Dion has flip flopped on a carbon tax, so nothing surprises me when it comes to Liberal policy lately.

Now we await the details or as I like to describe it as 'more policy on the fly.'

Does the money collected all stay in B.C, does the existing $100 dollars residents receive effect the GS tax cuts, how does the loss, or increase, in revenue to the feds get paid out, or paid for, by the rest of the country, how does carbon in B.C.now get priced, and other provinces, including Alberta, are taxing carbon, when can they expect a 'side deal'? I am sure there are plenty more but those are a few off the top of my head. I eagerly await the response tomorrow.

Oh, and just for fun one more question. What will Iggy say?

OK, I know that was not fair since Iggy is already in enough trouble today after he made a claim of his own about the Green Shift which totally contradicts Dion, the GS documentation, and the commitment to have 100% of the money collected to go back to Canadians via tax cuts.

“Our environmental policy is very simple: we want to decrease the tax on income. Most Canadians will get a tax cut from an incoming Liberal government, and we want to raise money for roads by taxing pollution. We cannot go on treating the earth as a garbage dump"

You know; it is almost as if some people are trying to derail the Liberal election chances from within, but that is for another post.

Will Dion change his Green Shift plan again?

Because a couple of more Liberals are asking him to do just that.

David Orchard: “I've spoken out inside the party and I've made my views known that I'd like to see some changes in the proposal,” said Orchard “I don't want to see farmers or fisherman or northerners penalized for using fuels for which there is no option, they have no alternative.”

Paul Zed: "There is no tax on emissions. The Green Shift plan is not a detriment to the refinery "¦ I wouldn't be supporting this if, for a moment, I thought the refinery was in jeopardy."

Ok, Zed is not asking directly for a change but once he realizes that he is grossly mistaken in his belief that refineries are not going to be taxed he has 2 choices; not support the carbon tax, as his words above so clearly state, or ask Dion to change the plan. Which one will it be?


Will Stephane Dion make more changes to the Green Shift before the election date?

Only time will tell.

ht Steve Janke

Maybe this is why she can't get elected after 5 attempts

Hana Razga, NDP candidate Edmonton-Leduc: “It makes sense with an economic point of view to tax the things that you want people to use less of. In this case it’s the carbon — cars and things that use carbon monoxide.”

This is Razga's six attempt at getting elected.

She ran for Edmonton City council in 2007, in the 2008 provincial election in Edmonton Whitemud and twice before in Edmonton-Manning (1997+2001) for the NDP, and federally for the NDP in 1997 in her home riding of Edmonton-East. Now she is at it again under the orange flag of the NDP in Edmonton-Leduc.

I wonder what Jack Layton has to say about this little gem:Because we all know how much Jack Layton supports Dion's carbon tax and the Alberta Oil sands.

"In the Edmonton-Leduc contest, that means calling for Omar Khadr’s return to Canada from Guantánamo Bay and voicing support for Stéphane Dion’s controversial carbon tax. She warned that Edmonton shouldn’t rush any expansion plans into Leduc. On the oilsands, though, she’s hesitant to call for federal action."

I feel a memo from party headquarters coming her way soon.




Some more quotes of interest from Razga:

"I think Canada has become a lot meaner country in the last 15 years, and the previous governments of Jean Chretien and with Paul Martin as his finance minister, and now it’s even worse Mr. Harper, with his law and order agenda"

She said at the same time, cap and trade has been used in Europe and it is very popular there and is working.

“They (the Conservatives) eliminated a lot funding for the status of women programs and their initiatives, they cancelled the court challenges programs, and of course, child care.”

“They are like wolves in a sheep’s skin.” She said it gives her shivers to think the Conservatives could form a majority.

Update: Hana was at it again this time in Ward 8 for the Edmonton municipal election where she garnered a whopping 9.7 % of the vote.

Where will she show up next?

Liberals inadvertently reveal more lies about the Green Shift

By now I am sure you have all read the latest news that Dion is going to try to modify his carbon tax proposal after his much ballyhooed summer tour trying to sell this bad piece of policy to Canadians failed miserably. While the story about how the Liberal sales job of the Green Shift has been a complete failure is damning enough in itself; hidden away in the latest Liberal rhetoric is something even more damning as it reveals just how Dion and the Liberals have been lying about the carbon tax from day 1.

Here is what Dion is now proposing: Dion will announce that part of the $1 billion contingency fund in his plan, designed for tax relief to address the unavoidable costs associated with the carbon tax, will be set aside for truckers, farmers and fishermen. "There's $1-billion wiggle room," said Montreal MP Marlene Jennings. "We've never said that the plan, in terms of the spending side, is complete, because it's not. There is money that we're setting aside in order to be able to assist sectors that are going to be particularly hard-hit."

A 1 billion dollar contingency fund?

Now how exactly can a plan "that every dollar that is raised from carbon pollution will be returned to Canadians in tax" cuts." and a plan where "This shift will be done in a revenue neutral way –putting it in law that every dollar that is raised from carbon pollution will be returned to Canadians in tax cuts." possibly have a contingency fund if every penny collected will be going back to Canadian taxpayers?

It absolutely cannot be done, that is unless of course someone has been lying to Canadians since day 1.

A couple of other pertinent questions:

Just how did Dion and the Liberals plan to slip a billion dollar fund made up of money that was promised to go back to the taxpayer past the Auditor General, who the Liberal have promised would oversee the revenue neutrality of the carbon tax?

If the Green Shift was going over well with Canadians at this time, does anyone honestly believe that the money would go back to the taxpayers?

And perhaps the most important question of all: What did the Liberals really plan to do with this fund?

Update: Buried in Dion's carbon tax is a note on the creation of a special fund. "Contingency offset. We will set aside $1 billion over four years ($100 million in the first year growing to $400 million in the fourth year) which will be reserved for tax cuts designed to off-set the impact of the carbon tax on groups such as not-for-profit organizations and charities. This contingency offset will also be used to design tax relief to address unanticipated and unavoidable costs associated with the new price on carbon for the most vulnerable in society."

So are farmers and fisherman non profit organizations, charities, or part of the most vulnerable of our society? I am sure they would like to know and eagerly await an answer from Dion.

By the way, when did a subsidy become a tax cut?


ht Steve Jenke and the comments at Unambiguous.

Ha Ha!!

Ha Ha!!*

Stephane Dion: "We're ready. We're well-organized and we're determined to win this election,"

Only one week before they expect to be plunged into a federal election campaign, some Liberal MPs are still hoping to make "adjustments" to the centrepiece of their party's platform -- the risky proposal to impose a carbon tax. (The Green Shift**)

Liberal agriculture critic Wayne Easter said on the carbon tax, "We need to boil that down, we need to figure what changes have to be made to accommodate the concerns that are raised." "And there are concerns. We don't deny that."

Robert Thibault, a Nova Scotia Liberal MP said: "In my mind, it's a statement of principles, it's not a recipe."

More evidence backing up Dions "ready" claim from the article:

Some Liberal insiders complain that continued infighting among factions in Quebec has turned that province into "a disaster zone" -- as one well-connected Grit called it -- for the party.

Some veteran Liberals disagree, especially when it comes to Quebec where some Liberals remain furious with Dion's Quebec lieutenant, Senator Celine Hervieux-Payette. They blame her for failing to find candidates for half the ridings in the province while blocking potentially strong candidates, such as former MPs Liza Frulla and Helene Scherre.



Yup. They are ready.




*Apologies to Nelson.
**Apologies to Jennifer Wright.

Another Liberal opens his mouth, and another smear comes out.

Scott Brison, Nova Scotia Liberal MP for Kings ­Hants must have figured that Mark Holland and the Liberal Party proper were having too much fun defending themselves in court over libel/defamation cases that he decided that he wanted to play along as well.

Last Thursday Brison made the following comments about Premier Rodney MacDonald’s opposition to the federal Liberals’ green plan: source

Premier MacDonald’s opposition to green plan has been “fully bought and paid for," and in a letter to to the premier Thursday Brison accused him of be­coming “a full branch-plant op­eration of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Ottawa office."


More Brison comments from Thursday: "Rodney MacDonald is more interested in being Stephen Harper's lap dog in Nova Scotia than he is in defending the interests of Nova Scotians," "He's only trying to feather his own nest after the next election when he loses and needs a patronage appointment from Stephen Harper."

Bought and paid for? Nice choice of words there Scotty, know any good lawyers? Better get on that Blackberry.

Trust me. I am an economist.

John McCallum, Liberal MP and LPC finance critic, was in Guelph on Tuesday trying to sell Dion's green shift to the local voters for the upcoming by-election, but like many other Liberal MP's of late, his explanation left more questions than answers.

After reading off the usual prepared party lines; "The essence of the Green Shift is that you have higher taxes on what you burn and lower taxes on what you earn," he said. "So that you tax higher things that are bad, like pollution, and you tax lower things like your income." (is anyone else out there getting tired of hearing these same words from every Liberal who opens up their mouth about Dion's carbon tax?) McCallum goes off script adding ""the vast majority" of Canadians will find the tax breaks included in the plan will outweigh the extra costs incurred by higher energy prices." Vast majority? Just what percentage of Canadians will make up that vast majority, how has he calculated this, and more importantly who will not be included in that "vast majority"?

52%, 60%? Higher? Come on big John, give us a real number. ( hint to the press: please start to ask these types of questions. It is your damn job.) Your guess on the numbers will be as good as McCallum's because nobody really knows for sure what the actual costs will turn out to be after the carbon tax inevitably gets passed down on to the consumer. Prices are going to raise on most everything, and unless you know just how much, you cannot make wild claims about how far these tax breaks are going to go. As for those left out of that "vast majority", no matter what the number turns out to be, logic says that they are the ones who are going to be least able to afford it such as the elderly, students, low wage earners, and all of those on fixed incomes. The plan is going to punish the poor.

McCallum, not to be out done by the many other Liberal MP's who have contradicted Dion on his green shift, had the following to say: "the Conservative anti-carbon tax campaign is promoting "two myths" about the Green Shift -- first that it won't be revenue neutral, and the myth that the Green Shift will raise the price of gas at the pump." Directly contradicting Dion who has already grudgingly admitted that the price at the pumps is going to raise: "We know that they will pass on part of their costs to their consumers because they cannot eliminate the emissions overnight, with all the goodwill of the world. We know that."

So why should anybody trust what McCallum has to say over his leader? Well, in response to comments made by the Executive Director of the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association, Peter A. Nelson, about the cost of lettuce going up to $8 a head, McCallum said "That's just crazy, totally out to lunch. And I'm an economist, so I know a little bit what I'm talking about. It doesn't make any sense."

Did the economist tell us just how much he thought the price of lettuce would go up, how much the rate of inflation would raise, or give us ANY real numbers at all about anything?

Well no, but not to worry because he is an economist after all; an economist who knows a "little bit" about what he is talking about.

Source story.

Hedy Fry "Clarifies" the green shift and announces that green shift will tax gasoline.

(updated with video and a link to the transcript of the interview with an additional audio source.)

It is no great surprise that the Liberals are having a difficult time trying to sell their carbon tax to Canadians. Almost daily we find examples of Liberals confusing people with the details or just contradicting each other and their leader on the plan. With that in mind Liberal MP Hedy Fry was on with Dave Rutherford last Tuesday to talk about Dion's carbon tax and to help clarify some of the confusion about the green shift for Canadians.

Wow, Hedy clarified alright, but I am not sure that Stephane Dion and the rest of the Liberals will agree with her definition of clarity after some of the wild claims she made that directly contradict what those others have been saying about the green shift.

And what did Hedy clarify for us?: Fry= blue. Dave Rutherford = brown. My comments in black

The green shift WILL tax gasoline. Yes you did read that right; Hedy says that the carbon tax will be on gasoline. I guess she missed the memo.

"We're taxing wholesale." ("wholesale what? Wholesale Gasoline?") "Yes, wholesale gasoline, diesel, coal, ah not simply natural gas, but gas, diesel, coal, propane, all of those things will be (taxed) at the wholesale level".
Later she clarifies that the wholesale level is going to mean that the tax will be applied at the refinery, but not to worry because it is not going to be added on at the pumps. "But it is not taxing you when you go to fill up your tank as well. It is not taxing the farmer when he goes to get diesel for his tractor. It is not doing that." and ""It is not coming out of your pockets. It is coming out of the wholesale level pocket."

Hmm, didn't Ralph Goodale state that 2/3 of the fuels produced in Saskatchewan and Alberta would not be taxed because it will end up being burned out of the country and not in Canada? Like all great Liberals Hedy clarifies for us just what Goodale meant to say; and in the process contradicts her interpretation of what Goodale said in mid sentence. "What he is trying to say is that it is not going to be passed on to the person who is buying gas at the retail level, and but we do know that it will in fact increase costs." Huh?

Ah the clarity! I feel so much better now, as I am sure Ralph Goodale does too considering how Hedy clarified his remarks for him in such a stellar way. Got that? Ralph was wrong on the carbon tax being imposed at the refinery level, and also wrong about the costs not being passed on to the consumer at the pumps because the green shift will increase costs. "You are admitting though that a wholesale level increase will translate into retail prices that are higher for food, for power, for fuel, for everything right?" "Absolutely". She goes on later to again confirm that costs will be higher because of the green shift for both fuel and food. "So that is going to again help them because the cost of food is going up, because of fuel costs" and "When you truck stuff from a to b people pay for it at the supermarket level" It would seem that these comments contradict some of her others about the cost of the carbon tax not coming out of our pockets, but why nit pick.


Wait, Hedy isn't finished with the breaking news announcements just yet.

Did you know that:

The green shift will not be providing tax breaks as previously stated by everyone else who has spoken on this so far, but rather Hedy announced the news that the Liberals will be issuing cheques to Canadians instead. "Wait a second. You are going to give Canadians cheques? "Yes". and later confirming this again when questioned by Rutherford about the cheques; "This is new. Hedy you are going to be giving cheques to people. I did not know this". "Yes"

Oil was $200 a barrel on August 5th: "Look let me tell you, I mean 25(?) uh 200 dollar a barrel of oil".


Those living in the North will be getting an additional tax break of $2000. "The northern allowance for the very cold regions of Canada are going to get an increased northern allowance of about $2000 dollars to help them with heating." Interesting; the green shift policy book states that the northern allowance will go up "to a new maximum of $7,000 per year from just over $6,000" which translates to an immediate tax savings of nearly $150 per year and over $200 per year within four years for those who fully benefit from the NRD." More Liberal math I guess.


The Liberals are going to keep the Conservative $100/month Child Care benefit? Hedy confirms this for all in the following: "All families, meaning with children. who actually it doesn't matter what your tax rate is will be for instance getting a boost of about $250 dollars a year on top of the child benefits that are already there for them."



Clarity, thy name is Hedy.

You can listen to this for yourself at QR77. (audio vault Tuesday Aug 5th 2008 @ 930am) note the file will only be available for a limited time.

Update: Steve Jenke has a transcript and a audio copy of the interview here.

Martha Hall Findlay has forsaken me!

Oh what a sad day it is at the old anthill today as I have just found out that Steve Janke over at Angry in the Great White North received an email from Liberal MP Martha Hall Findlay in regards to comments she had made about Dion's carbon tax, and which Steve posted about here.
The very same comments that had I quoted in my post here a full 2 days before Steve made his post on his blog which contained a link to my original post.

FYI here is the MHF quote: "Findlay said it's impossible to calculate the emission reduction numbers at this point, "because energy prices have gone up so much, we don't know how the shift will affect consumption," she said."

Martha, why have you forsaken me for Janke? Am I not 'angry' enough to deserve an email from you, or perhaps is it because you prefer beavers who wear cute little toques over aardvarks?

I must know the truth. Why Martha, why?

----------

Update: Steve Janke linked to this post as his comments on the MHF email have been closed off. Feel free to add anything to the comments here.

Here is the email: My comments in bold

Assuming that you strive for accuracy, (If there was something inaccurate about the quote used, please let us know.)I have the following clarifications to make to one of your recent posts. You referred to comments on the Green Shift I made at an event, where I was discussing the impact of the Green Shift on the environment.

Adding a carbon tax to the burning of fossil fuels will, absolutely, have the effect of reducing emissions; I have never said otherwise. (Yes, but you have no idea how much, or even if the carbon tax will have any more affect than what the market is already doing. We do live in a northern climate and we do need to heat our homes and use electricity, so no matter how high those costs go Canadians are still going to have to use fossil fuels.)It has been demonstrated repeatedly, around the world, that adding to market forces is the most effective way to affect behaviour. ( Care to cite some examples of this with regards to CO2 emissions?) Those of us old enough remember significant fuel-reduction behaviour due to the 1970s oil crisis. ( That was the market that did this and not some feel good government policy disguised as an environment plan.)

There will be reductions in emissions from the Green Shift because we know that people will change their consumption patterns if polluting behaviours cost more. This is already occurring, to some extent, due to other factors in today’s market – namely rapidly increased oil prices. (I am glad you can see this is already occurring already because of the market. So why do you see the need to punish the poor even more by adding on more costs to them, by way of the Liberal proposed carbon tax?)The Green Shift, by adding a price on the burning of other carbon dioxide emitters, – coal is a prime and very polluting example – will reduce emissions even more. (Are you suggesting that the big coal users, like power plants, are going to burn less coal because it is going to cost them more, rather than just passing those added costs on to the consumer?)

My point is that both increased market oil prices and the imposition of a price on the burning of other fossil fuels, when working together, will reduce green-house gas emissions even further. It will, however, be difficult to determine the exact proportions of the reduction attributable to each. ( Thank you for confirming your original quote that you do not know how the carbon tax will affect consumption. And for accuracy's sake, that was the point that myself and Steve Janke made with our blog posts.)

Reducing emissions, helping people deal with immediate energy costs through significant income tax cuts, and encouraging investment in green technology and renewable energy sources, all at the same time – it sure sounds pretty good to me. (Yes it does sound good, but are you now making the promise that those tax cuts we get back are going to cover ALL of the increased costs brought on by the green shift?)

(I didn't think so. Because like emission reductions, you have no idea just what those costs are going to really be.)

Finally, a picky point perhaps, but for future reference, my last name is Hall Findlay, not just Findlay. (You are going to have to talk to Steve about that one, but as Jen pointed out in the comments; the next time you mention the PM please be sure to refer to him as Prime Minister Harper and not just Harper.)

Thank you.

Martha Hall Findlay
Member of Parliament / Députée
Willowdale
Associate Finance Critic / porte-parole associée en matière de finances

Anxiously Awaiting the Liberal Press Release Condemning Obama

Is anyone else anxiously awaiting the Liberal Party of Canada press release condemning Barrack Obama's proposed gasoline rebate of $1000 dollars per family?




I will be out for most of the day, but if anyone happens to see Dion and the Liberals condemnation of this $1000 gasoline rebate that will encourage Americans to consume even more gasoline and produce more CO2, please post a link in the comments.

Thank you in advance.

Al

For your viewing pleasure Paris Hilton proposes her own energy plan.

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

Ralph Goodale and the mystical Liberal money fairy.

Fighting for his political life in his home province, Liberal MP Ralph Goodale takes his attempt at selling the carbon tax to the people of Saskatchewan and invokes the mysterious Liberal money fairy in the process.

What Mystical Liberal Money Fairy am I talking about you ask. Well the one that is going to have to come up with the real money for the Liberal promises and claims of increased spending on, R&D both in private industry and universities, alternative energy, new green based business', public transit, an Office of Petroleum Price Information, emissions reducing technology, special funds, and other assorted promises made by Dion and his band of inept Liberals.

Just how big are these Liberal promises? Lets see what Ralph Goodale had to say on that.

"And those investments are going to bring literally billions of dollars in new business activity to these two provinces. While we had the initial problem of the largest bulk of emissions, we have ultimately the biggest benefit of the largest amount of the new investment that is going to be made to deal with those emissions and the order of magnitude could be about the size of building the St. Lawrence Seaway and that will come into Alberta and Saskatchewan over the course of the next 10-15 years".


Now that sure sounds big to me, but there remains an issue that the Liberals have seemed to overlook, or are purposely omitting in their efforts to deceive Canadians.

Just where is all of this money going to come from?

It cannot be from the taxes collected via the green shift because that is promised to be revenue neutral and "that every dollar that is raised from carbon pollution will be returned to Canadians in tax" cuts." and the Liberals are planning to write that into law and have it monitored by the Auditor General.

So if not even $1.00 of taxes collected by the green shift will be going into either directly reducing CO2 emissions or into ANY of the programs/spending promised by the numerous Liberals out trying to sell this fraud of an environment program to Canadians; where will those big promises of investment money come from?

You guessed it; the mystical Liberal money fairy.


All of this talk about the money that will be flowing into the economy are nothing but empty promises and very wishful thinking on the part of Dion and the Liberals. There is no basis in reality for these claims and again the Liberal Party of Canada are showing us their arrogance and contempt by taking the voters and taxpayers of this country for idiots by trying to convince us otherwise. Nobody is buying it, the plan is a dud and the Liberals will be rewarded for their contempt at the ballot box.


That is unless they happen to have a Mystical Liberal Vote Fairy on standby as well.

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A quick afterthought: If PM Harper made the very same dubious claims about alleged billions of dollars of investment money that would magically come rolling into Canada as a result of his governments environment plan (and he could because the claims are nothing but pie in the sky wishful thinking not based on reality); how long do you thing it would take for those claims to be chewed up and ripped apart on the front pages of every news paper in the country?

So why the silence from the MSM?