On April 15, [Progressive] Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole unveiled his new carbon tax. Try as I might to find a nicer way to put it, it was the dumbest thing I read that week — and I had just finished reading an NDP proposal to disband the Canadian Armed Forces..My colleagues here at the Western Standard have done a great job establishing how O’Toole’s carbon tax is a big government bureaucratic mess; a betrayal of his signed pledge to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and the CPC members who voted for him in the leadership, and is a worse tax than Trudeau’s..Rather than re-hash those points, I decided to borrow Doc Brown’s time machine for another journey back in time, to interview a younger Erin O’Toole..McColl: “Mr. O’Toole, how would you describe carbon taxes?”.O’Toole: “We have a carbon tax, which on the weekend the [my opponent] said would make our economy more competitive, showing the height of [his] disconnect from reality.” – November 28, 2016.McColl: “How do you feel about carbon taxes and broken promises?”.O’Toole: “Whether it is broken promises to veterans, to taxpayers, to exporters or to our farmers, they are seeing a litany of broken promises that have really hit small businesses particularly badly. Seniors and families are tight with a dollar. I have met many of them in the last number of months across the country. They are already feeling the higher tax burden with the carbon tax schemes being implemented across the country.” – June 5, 2017.McColl: “Is there any way that Western Conservative MPs could ever defend or campaign for a carbon tax?”.O’Toole: “I do not know how a single [Conservative] member could defend [a carbon tax] in his or her riding. [We] have raised taxes on families. [We] have raised taxes on small business. [We] brought in a nationalized carbon tax.” – June 5, 2017.McColl: “How would a carbon tax effect Ontario’s auto industry?”.O’Toole: “The auto industry will be uncompetitive in Ontario versus the plants in Michigan or Pennsylvania, where there is no carbon tax.” – June 6, 2017.McColl: “Justin Trudeau claims that this is not a carbon tax, because the government redistributes the revenue back to the people. If you were at some point in the future to break your word and introduce a carbon tax and redistribute the revenue back to people, like a Petro Points card, how would you defend it?”.O’Toole: “This is not a cash grab. I have said previously in the House that this should be revenue neutral directed at citizens. The government subsequently made a decision to make it revenue neutral and provinces could then determine it. If B.C. wants to put its money directly to its citizens, but Nova Scotia and Quebec want to do something different, it’s up to those provinces to make those determinations. However, certainly at the federal level, money will not be kept by the government. Instead it will flow back to the provinces.” – March 21, 2018. Answer is from Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith in response to a question from Erin O’Toole.There you have it. Erin O’Toole is against carbon taxes, from other people. In the past. Let’s go check in with a younger Stephen Harper to see what he thinks of Erin O’Toole’s carbon tax. .McColl: Prime Minister Harper, the leader of the opposition is proposing a broad-based carbon tax that will redistribute the revenues for use on green, “environmentally-friendly” purchases. What do you think of the plan? .Harper: “It’s a risky scheme…It’s a permanent tax on everything.” – 2008.McColl: But the opposition leader insists that it’s not a tax. He says it’s a levy designed to fight climate change..Harper: “It is like the National Energy Program in the sense that the national energy program was designed to screw the West and really damage the energy sector — and this will do those things. This is different in that this will actually screw everybody across the country. – June 20, 2008.Alex McColl is the National Defence Columnist for the Western Standard
On April 15, [Progressive] Conservative Party Leader Erin O’Toole unveiled his new carbon tax. Try as I might to find a nicer way to put it, it was the dumbest thing I read that week — and I had just finished reading an NDP proposal to disband the Canadian Armed Forces..My colleagues here at the Western Standard have done a great job establishing how O’Toole’s carbon tax is a big government bureaucratic mess; a betrayal of his signed pledge to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and the CPC members who voted for him in the leadership, and is a worse tax than Trudeau’s..Rather than re-hash those points, I decided to borrow Doc Brown’s time machine for another journey back in time, to interview a younger Erin O’Toole..McColl: “Mr. O’Toole, how would you describe carbon taxes?”.O’Toole: “We have a carbon tax, which on the weekend the [my opponent] said would make our economy more competitive, showing the height of [his] disconnect from reality.” – November 28, 2016.McColl: “How do you feel about carbon taxes and broken promises?”.O’Toole: “Whether it is broken promises to veterans, to taxpayers, to exporters or to our farmers, they are seeing a litany of broken promises that have really hit small businesses particularly badly. Seniors and families are tight with a dollar. I have met many of them in the last number of months across the country. They are already feeling the higher tax burden with the carbon tax schemes being implemented across the country.” – June 5, 2017.McColl: “Is there any way that Western Conservative MPs could ever defend or campaign for a carbon tax?”.O’Toole: “I do not know how a single [Conservative] member could defend [a carbon tax] in his or her riding. [We] have raised taxes on families. [We] have raised taxes on small business. [We] brought in a nationalized carbon tax.” – June 5, 2017.McColl: “How would a carbon tax effect Ontario’s auto industry?”.O’Toole: “The auto industry will be uncompetitive in Ontario versus the plants in Michigan or Pennsylvania, where there is no carbon tax.” – June 6, 2017.McColl: “Justin Trudeau claims that this is not a carbon tax, because the government redistributes the revenue back to the people. If you were at some point in the future to break your word and introduce a carbon tax and redistribute the revenue back to people, like a Petro Points card, how would you defend it?”.O’Toole: “This is not a cash grab. I have said previously in the House that this should be revenue neutral directed at citizens. The government subsequently made a decision to make it revenue neutral and provinces could then determine it. If B.C. wants to put its money directly to its citizens, but Nova Scotia and Quebec want to do something different, it’s up to those provinces to make those determinations. However, certainly at the federal level, money will not be kept by the government. Instead it will flow back to the provinces.” – March 21, 2018. Answer is from Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith in response to a question from Erin O’Toole.There you have it. Erin O’Toole is against carbon taxes, from other people. In the past. Let’s go check in with a younger Stephen Harper to see what he thinks of Erin O’Toole’s carbon tax. .McColl: Prime Minister Harper, the leader of the opposition is proposing a broad-based carbon tax that will redistribute the revenues for use on green, “environmentally-friendly” purchases. What do you think of the plan? .Harper: “It’s a risky scheme…It’s a permanent tax on everything.” – 2008.McColl: But the opposition leader insists that it’s not a tax. He says it’s a levy designed to fight climate change..Harper: “It is like the National Energy Program in the sense that the national energy program was designed to screw the West and really damage the energy sector — and this will do those things. This is different in that this will actually screw everybody across the country. – June 20, 2008.Alex McColl is the National Defence Columnist for the Western Standard
