With Mark Carney occupying the Prime Minister’s chair, it’s clear we’re entering a new era of “climate-first politics” in Canada. But while Carney’s ideology is wrapped in green language and a net-zero utopia, the realities behind these policies are far from practical, and Canadians are beginning to wake up to the fact that they are bearing the cost.Carney recently froze the 2026 Electric Vehicle (EV) mandate targets, a clear admission that even his government is starting to see how unachievable this plan truly is. Cold weather performance, charging logistics, and infrastructure gaps are all glaring issues, especially here in Canada.Let’s talk reality: if you’re the one-hundredth car in a lineup at a highway charging station during a winter road trip, what do you do? Wait in the cold for an hour? Two? What if the grid’s already under strain from a deep freeze and your home is without power again? Are we supposed to trust that everything from our vehicles to our furnaces can run without failure in a country where power outages already happen? In this case, it will happen far more often..FLETCHER: Orange Shirt Day guilt industry running out of control.What about the commercial fleets, delivery trucks, trades vehicles, and emergency services? How can they be expected to operate reliably and affordably in this fully electrified scenario? Should I mention the electric buses with their extra costs, and the incidents where they catch on fire?No one is discussing who will pay for the thousands of gas stations that will close or the tens of thousands of workers who will lose their jobs. Nor have we had a serious discussion about the skilled auto mechanics who will become obsolete as EVs are forced into the market..And what about the rising energy demands from AI? We're building a hyper-connected, smart-everything world that consumes enormous amounts of power, yet we’re layering on even more demand with EVs, electrified homes, and net-zero regulations. Where is all this power supposed to come from, and who’s paying to upgrade the grid? You are.Carney's ideology is dangerously disconnected from economic and physical reality. His vision of net-zero housing, for example, sounds noble until you realize the cost. We’re not talking about small upgrades, we’re talking about tens of thousands of dollars added to each build, such as triple-pane windows, enhanced insulation, air sealing, heat pumps, blower door tests, solar panels, and more. The average Canadian can barely afford a down payment, let alone the added cost of making their home a climate laboratory..BEN-AMI: Note to PM Carney: End the diplomatic virtue signaling, focus on the real problem.And yet Carney talks about building millions of homes without any practical experience in construction. Former Housing Minister Sean Fraser resigned from the Liberal Party earlier this year, reportedly after realizing that many of the targets and mandates he championed were physically and economically impossible. He came back and was rewarded with the position of Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.Net-zero mandates will slow home construction, strangle supply, and send prices even higher. Builders will hesitate or back away entirely from projects that become financially unviable. And in rural areas or smaller towns where technologies and skilled labour are limited, costs will soar even higher..There is a smarter path forward. Rather than imposing costly top-down mandates, we should offer voluntary, scalable retrofit incentives, replacing old furnaces, adding smart thermostats, and installing energy-efficient windows. These are changes Canadians want, and they deliver real, measurable benefits without punishing buyers or builders.This approach respects homeowners’ choices, supports trades and renovators, and reduces emissions without pushing people out of the market. It also stimulates Canada’s $8 billion renovation industry and creates jobs, all without adding billions in government debt or crippling the housing sector..EDITORIAL: If Nenshi says the pornographic books are fine in school libraries, bring them to the mic.If Carney truly believes climate change is the challenge of our time, he must recognize that affordability is part of the solution. Forcing unaffordable, unworkable policies on Canadians isn’t leadership; it’s ideology disguised as governance.I may not be around to see the final fallout from these policies, but my children and grandchildren will. And I want them to inherit a country built on common sense, not senseless activism.
.png?w=480&auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max)
