(Ottawa) The “absurd” pretext put forward by the Conservatives to justify their opposition to the free trade agreement between Canada and Ukraine hides something else, according to Justin Trudeau: the party is taking a tangent that is not not unlike that of the Republicans in the United States, he argued.
The Prime Minister hit this nail on the head as his troops have been doing since the entire Conservative delegation voted against the bill on the implementation of the trade pact, arguing that it would force Ukraine to provide a carbon pricing mechanism.
“Obviously it’s an excuse. But that’s not the real story,” he said on Friday.
“The real story is the rise of an American right-wing, MAGA-style way of thinking [Make America Great Again]which made Canadian conservatives, who were among the greatest defenders of Ukraine, I admit, turn their backs on Ukraine,” he insisted.
“There is the danger of the rise of the influence of the right in Canada,” he said in English during the closing press conference of the Canada-European Union Summit held in Saint -Jean, Newfoundland, Friday.
PHOTO FRANK GUNN, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Pierre Poilievre
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre justified his troops’ vote against Bill C-57 at second reading on Wednesday by asserting that his party was “opposed to including the carbon tax in any free trade agreement.”
The text does not provide anything binding in this area. It is mentioned that the parties must “cooperate bilaterally […] to find solutions to issues of common interest”, including by promoting “carbon pricing and [d]“measures to mitigate the risks of carbon leakage”.
Ukraine, moreover, has a carbon pollution pricing system, although its tax is among the lowest in the world, at 82 US cents per tonne. In Canada, the price is CAN$65 per tonne for 2023, and the cost increases by $15 per year to reach $170 in 2030.