Erin O’Toole Announces Conservative will Run on a Carbon Tax, Proving He’s a Liar

Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leader Erin O’Toole, in a move that goes against the position held by most delegates of the CPC, and the position he took during the 2020 leadership race, has announced that if elected he would still support the infamous carbon tax.

Now granted, O’Toole’s carbon tax will be less expensive than that of Trudeau, rather than starting at 40$-per-tonne as the Liberal plan suggests, O’Toole’s carbon tax would start with a price of 20$-per-tonne. The high mark of the Liberal plan, at 175$-per-tonne, does seem to far outweigh that of the Conservatives and the 50$-per-tonne maximum set by O’Toole, but with such a reversal in direction for the party already one has to wonder how much faith they can put in such a statement.

During the leadership race leadership Jim Karahalios was the first to call out O’Toole, and Peter MacKay, for being “Red Tories” candidates; all while pandering to Conservative voters in an attempt to be placed ahead on the ballots of conservative candidates like Jim Karahalios, Leslyn Lewis and Derek Sloan who reflected the philosophical base of the conservative movement.

O’Toole’s early targeting of the conservative wing of the CPC, such as the removal of leadership candidate Jim Karahalios (despite winning a court challenge against the party), the removal of his opponent Derek Sloan, or the demotion of Pierre Poilievre from his position as finance critic. These two MPs and Jim Karahalios (married to Ontario MPP Belinda Karahalios) had strong grassroots support, had already made it clear to many that Erin was in fact falsely presenting himself as a “true-blue Conservative”.

Many CPC members, delegates, and traditional voters have lost faith in the Conservative party under this new leadership, seeing the campaign as a move left for a right-wing party that many already thought was too far left; these days the CPC is more of a mushy centre-left party than anything remotely conservative.

This new direction has caused a major exodus from the party, seeing alternative parties on the right such as the Libertarian Party, the PPC, and the Maverick Party grow significantly since O’Toole has taken charge.

Despite all this the CPC still had many voters hang on, as the belief is instilled in them that the Conservatives are the only true opposition to the Liberals; seeing those exiting the party as “vote splitters” who are essentially voting Liberal and helping put Trudeau back in office.

Now, further fragmenting the party, this latest move from O’Toole is disaffecting many western Conservative voters, who work in – and rely on – the energy sector, but also all lower/middle-class voters who were counting on the CPC to reverse the elitist carbon tax that unfairly punishes regular Canadians.

It shouldn’t exactly be a major shock that O’Toole is going back on his word specifically on the issue of the carbon tax, since on his 2020 leadership campaign and on his current staff he has members of Patrick Brown’s old Ontario PC leadership team who were proponents of the carbon tax provincially.

O’Toole believes that the reduction, rather than the elimination, of the carbon tax would be most beneficial seeing as he would be able to lower the burden on everyday Canadians while still fighting climate change; but, as is often the case, having your cake and eating it too doesn’t quite work out.

The data has shown that the science behind the effectiveness of a Carbon tax is spotty at best, generally one could only expect a slim reduction in carbon emissions, and that’s if the tax rates are very high. O’Toole’s carbon tax is therefore unlikely to make any changes to Canada’s carbon emissions, but would still raise the cost of living for Canadians on everyday necessities such as heating, food, medicine, etc. 

Recently Canadians have seen an “extraordinary” rise in the cost of commodities, with lumber costs going through the roof, which is certain to have far-reaching implications on prices for countless products and services Canadians use every day. All the while our “environmentalist” Prime Minister, and other “leaders”, fly all over the world in private jets; which burns up more carbon in a few hours of use than your average Canadian’s yearly carbon footprint.

It is getting quite clear that Canadians no longer have a choice among major parties, there is but one party position when it comes to who is to bear the burden of the ridiculous policies they institute, that is the working class.