Trudeau Hits Canada with a Carbon Tax Hike While the Country is Down

Despite the Canadian economy currently being in the weakest position, it has been in for well over a decade, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his federal Liberal government have seemingly put the country into as deep a hole as they can find.

The Liberal government now plans on hitting $170 a tonne for carbon emissions by 2030, which means the yearly increase will be $15 per tonne rather than the original $10 when the goal was lower. Once the $170 per tonne goal is met gas prices will be made up of 37.57 cents per litre of gasoline. 

It’s hard to tell whether Trudeau is just astronomically incompetent or resents the average Canadian, and especially Albertan, in such a profound way he is willing to ruin the economy completely just to prove how little he cares. 

Unable to read the mood in the country, Trudeau at the announcement of the yearly increase said, “Unfortunately, there are some jurisdictions that still don’t understand that the only way to build an economy for the future is to protect the environment at the same time. There are still some places in this country that want to make pollution free again,” clearly taking aim at the Western provinces and trying to sow discord between Canadians in different regions.

Some will argue that the carbon tax rebate will benefit poorer Canadian families, but not only is that misguided based on the increased cost of gas, utilities, and products on store shelves, it also only has a chilling effect on the economic growth that raises families out of poverty naturally.

Redistribution of wealth just makes less well-off families better off in the extreme short term. It is a cruel joke for Trudeau and the Liberals to be taxing Canadian industry into international economic irrelevance while ballyhooing the benefits Canadians will get to have while watching the economy grind to a halt. 

Even if you personally want an economy with lower carbon emissions, and maybe even think the carbon tax is a useful tool to lowering emissions, this was not the correct time to announce the carbon tax would be taking on steeper yearly increases. 

Would anybody in their right mind do such a thing right now during a global pandemic and economic recession who wasn’t motivated by either extreme incompetence or outright maliciousness? 

Likely Trudeau’s greatest problem with rising to the occasion to meet Canada’s economic problems over the years, and especially now during COVID-19 is his unbreakable bond to his hyper-progressive political goals. Trudeau was made to be a prime minister only during the very good times, as he has consistently demonstrated an inability to roll up his sleeves (when cameras weren’t around) and deal with the unglamorous problems of the economy and leave his pet issues like the Paris Agreement and redistributive tax programs aside for a time.

For now, Canadians are trapped in a terrible economic situation not only from all the lockdowns imposed by the provinces, despite what even the WHO recommends doing, and through all of this can look forward to a skyrocketing carbon tax rate when the economy is trying to recover in the coming years. 

I for one would love to have it explained to me how increasing costs on all industrial, agricultural, commercial, and personal activity is going to help Canada “build back better” like we keep seeing leaders like Trudeau repeating. Unless slow growth and everyone being more equal through mutual poverty is supposed to be the “better” end goal. 

Not a lot to look forward to in 2021 despite how bad people say 2020 was.