Mark Carney.
Farmers Forum staff
OTTAWA — Even the governing Liberals are now sharpening the axe against the carbon tax — or are at least pretending to — and that should cheer the farmers whose crop-drying and barn-heating costs have needlessly escalated as a result of the unpopular levy. The end is in sight, one way or the other.
In March, Liberals will choose their next leader, and by extension, the next prime minister, as a replacement for the outgoing Justin Trudeau. The winner will ultimately face off in a federal election against the other parties, including Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives who are riding high in the polls on a promise to axe the tax.
In a desperate bid to pick up votes from the Conservatives, the top three contenders in the Liberal leadership race have all shed their previous unwavering support for the carbon tax. Admittedly, the perceived frontrunner, former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney, is playing coy and is the most wishy-washy on the subject. He won’t say if he’s prepared to keep the existing carbon tax, but neither is he defending the tax as vigorously as he did in the past. At Carney’s leadership campaign kickoff, he mused about replacing the tax with something “at least if not more effective.” Tellingly, he has the endorsement of “proud socialist” and carbon tax diehard, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.
Former finance minister Chrystia Freeland, meanwhile, has explicitly promised to scrap the carbon tax after faithfully defending it at Trudeau’s side for six years. Her campaign has gone so far as to suggest that the Conservatives will have to get another slogan and new campaign merchandise, implying that ‘axe the tax’ is a done deal anyway.
Former Liberal House Leader Karina Gould has said she will freeze the carbon tax at its current level and cancel this year’s scheduled increase on April 1.
A new Postmedia-Leger poll found that 51 % of Canadians don’t believe a new Liberal leader will remove the carbon tax, the National Post reported.
