Patrone: Action Justified On Global Climate Crisis But Not Inflation Because…It’s A Global Crisis

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pulled off a pretty neat trick this week. She managed to use the same justification for taking urgent action on one crisis as she did for doing nothing about another one.

In responding to a question by Finance Critic Pierre Poilievre about soaring inflation, she admitted the issue of higher consumer prices was a ‘crisis’ but noted it was global in nature, presumably rendering any unilateral domestic action futile. When asked if inflation was a “homegrown problem,” the Finance Minister said it was a “global phenomenon” and that Canadians understood that.

We’re not sure what information she bases that on considering how long it took her to figure out inflation was problematic in the first place.

“This is a serious global challenge, not a ‘made in Canada’ one,” Freeland said.

She noted inflation in the U.S. and Mexico was running hotter than in Canada as if that somehow takes her off the hook as far as dealing with higher prices in this country. One supposes we’re to conclude, as long as other countries have a bigger inflationary ‘crisis’ facing them, Canada is further justified in its inaction.

Oddly enough, the climate crisis necessitates urgent action in Canada because we’re told in the throne speech, the “planet is in danger.”

Huh?

We’re told the global nature of inflation renders that crisis unworthy of taking domestic action. Then we are told the same week, the planetary “danger” facing us as a result of climate change demands immediate and urgent action here in Canada because it’s global in nature.

Get it? Neither do I.

Maybe you have to be a Rhodes Scholar like Freeland to be able to untangle that apparent contradiction. I’m eager to hear her try.

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