As prime minister Justin Trudeau trails in polls, opposition seek to persuade voters environmental policy is a burden
Mass hunger and malnutrition. A looming nuclear winter. An existential threat to the Canadian way of life. For months, the country’s Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has issued dire and increasingly apocalyptic warnings about the future. The culprit? A federal carbon levy meant to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
In the House of Commons this month, the Tory leader said there was only one way to avoid the devastating crisis: embattled prime minister Justin Trudeau must “call a ‘carbon tax’ election”.
Hailed as a global model of progressive environmental policy, Canada’s carbon tax has reduced emissions and put money in the pockets of Canadians. The levy, endorsed by conservative and progressive economists, has survived multiple federal elections and a supreme court challenge. But this time, a persistent cost-of-living crisis and a pugnacious Conservative leader running on a populist message have thrust the country’s carbon tax once more into the spotlight, calling into question whether it will survive another national vote.
Maybe. But if it was that simple then I’d expect it to be at least as unfavorable as Trudeau.
I think it’s just people don’t understand it, and I think that’s frankly the fault of the liberals.
People hear “tax” and go “shit that’s a thing I have to pay, right?” And “carbon” and say “my home is heated by natural gas and I drive to work” and then say “the government wants to tax me not to freeze and to get to work?” And then they don’t connect the dots that the money that keeps getting direct deposited to them by the government is funded by the tax.
Like, if it was called “The Climate Bonus Payment” and the government had a little fucking fanfare around the distribution, it’d be wildly popular.
I think you’re looking at it the wrong way. The more likely conclusion to draw here is that the carbon tax is well liked enough that it can rise above Trudeau’s appalling favorability ratings. If people hated the tax itself as widely as you’re supposing, it would logically be even less popular than the leader it’s so indemnably associated with, no?
I think we roughly agree. The point I’m trying to make is that I think arguments around it being tied to just hating Trudeau are overblown. Even when Trudeau was net positive the carbon tax was net negative.
I think people’s perception of the carbon tax are based on their understanding of the carbon tax. I don’t people’s view of Trudeau significantly factor into it, at least not directly.
Conservatives are most likely to see it unfavorably. They’re most likely to not understand it. They might ALSO be more likely to see Trudeau unfavorably… But that’s kinda post hoc ergo propter hoc IMO