THOMSON: Ukrainians fight for freedom, Trudeau insists they have carbon tax

A new Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement (FTA,) Bill C-57, was passed in the House of Commons Tuesday. Conservative Party MPs were the only ones who voted against it and in doing so, helped to propagate the fact that Canada is not a serious country.First, as I’ve said before in a previous column, the Conservatives, Liberals, and their respective leaders support Ukraine. If you can’t admit as much, then your partisanship has clouded your critical thinking to a degree that there is small hope for your redemption.Did the prime minister and his Liberal government need to include a bunch of language in the FTA regarding carbon pricing? No, of course they didn’t. But it’s who they are. To expect otherwise would be like believing Justin Trudeau can take a Christmas vacation without an ethics scandal.Did the Leader of the Opposition and his Conservatives need to pout and prevent there being unanimous support for the new Ukraine FTA over carbon phrasing? No, of course they didn’t. But it’s who they are. If it’s got the word carbon in it and it’s in anyway associated with the Liberals, then you can bet they’re voting against it.So while Bill C-57 heads back to the Senate for another round of scrutiny, we will all have to watch the meaningless post-vote battle, on and off Parliament Hill.The Liberals will continue to try and attack the Conservatives on matters pertaining to Ukraine and foreign affairs, but those efforts will be largely ineffective. Liberal credibility on this file has more in common with a dumpster fire than a serious and comprehensive approach that one might expect from a G7 nation.After all, we still haven’t delivered the air defence system we promised Ukraine over a year ago. Nor have we found a way to circumvent the red tape preventing a stockpile of mothballed rockets that Ukraine wants, to be shipped overseas. Then there was that time our Prime Minister gave Vladimir Putin a public relations victory by personally inviting a Nazi to the House of Commons during President Zelensky’s visit to Canada.Who needs enemies when you have the Trudeau government as a friend?But Poilievre’s politicking on this file is also worthy of scorn.Nothing in the new FTA would force Ukraine to enact a carbon tax scheme such as Canada has adopted. In fact, it’s a moot point. Ukraine already has had its own carbon tax since 2011.For all intents and purposes Mr. Poilievre was being obstinate simply for the sake of trying to score political points with his base. Instead of supporting Bill C-57, which would have given both Canada and Ukraine a PR win — (albeit small) — he put partisanship first.So, let’s recap shall we.We have a prime minister and a government that includes contentious carbon pricing language in an FTA with a country involved in a war for its very existence. And, we have what is likely a future prime minister who denied an ally a small victory simply because he couldn’t see that the phrasing of the FTA was not an ideological hill worth dying on.Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine, a real life and death struggle, is approaching its grim two-year anniversary. Recent polling conducted by the Angus Reid Institute shows Canadians' support and interest in the conflict is understandably waning. It’s reached a stalemate, and it is draining our increasingly scant economic resources during a time of widespread hardship across the country.If Canada were a serious country, its leaders could have run this free trade agreement through with very little controversy.But it isn’t. And for that reason, the whole thing has been an utter cockup, reflecting poorly on Trudeau, Poilievre and this country.

THOMSON: Ukrainians fight for freedom, Trudeau insists they have carbon tax

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