(Ottawa) The Trudeau government’s about-face on carbon pricing gives new ammunition to Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
The day after the announcement of a three-year pause in carbon pricing measures for fuel oil deliveries, Pierre Poilievre had reason to rub his hands behind his lectern bearing the slogan “Abolish the tax”.
“Justin Trudeau is having a meltdown,” he immediately exclaimed in Saint John, Newfoundland, on Friday.
“He is in total panic. After eight years of saying that we needed a carbon tax to increase the cost of food, heating and gasoline, he admits that his tax is not worth the cost,” continued the leader of the opposition.
PHOTO ADRIAN WYLD, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Pierre Poilievre
This “about-face” is explained by the fact that the Liberals are “falling in the polls”, and that “common-sense conservatives”, for their part, are increasing the number of rallies in Atlantic Canada to counter the Trudeau tax, he argued.
And these relaxations from the Liberal leader are intended to help “his political career”, not Canadians who have difficulty making ends meet, continued the Conservative leader.
In announcing the suspension of the application of the federal price on pollution to deliveries of fuel oil in the provinces and territories where the federal fuel charge is in effect, Thursday afternoon, Prime Minister Trudeau denied that he It was a step backwards.
“On the contrary,” he said at a press conference, surrounded by his Atlantic MPs.
“Today’s announcement [jeudi] allows us to further accelerate our investments to counter climate change. We saw that the price on pollution was not enough for enough people to switch to heat pumps,” he argued.
The architect of carbon pricing, former Minister of the Environment Catherine McKenna (2015-2019), does not seem to share this reading.
“Politics is crazy. We have real problems. We have real solutions. I know hard things are hard, but politicians should match problems with solutions and clearly explain why certain actions were necessary,” she wrote on X on Thursday evening.
“As advised to me [Jean] Chrétien: “Canadians are reasonable. Be reasonable,” she concluded.