As prime minister Justin Trudeau trails in polls, opposition seek to persuade voters environmental policy is a burden
Mass hunger and malnutrition. A looming nuclear winter. An existential threat to the Canadian way of life. For months, the country’s Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has issued dire and increasingly apocalyptic warnings about the future. The culprit? A federal carbon levy meant to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
In the House of Commons this month, the Tory leader said there was only one way to avoid the devastating crisis: embattled prime minister Justin Trudeau must “call a ‘carbon tax’ election”.
Hailed as a global model of progressive environmental policy, Canada’s carbon tax has reduced emissions and put money in the pockets of Canadians. The levy, endorsed by conservative and progressive economists, has survived multiple federal elections and a supreme court challenge. But this time, a persistent cost-of-living crisis and a pugnacious Conservative leader running on a populist message have thrust the country’s carbon tax once more into the spotlight, calling into question whether it will survive another national vote.
Justin Trudeau could cure cancer 6 days in a row and our pseudo-aristocracy would claim he was lazy on the 7th; or probably the cause to begin with.
Polievre - if he’s still the leader of the “no tax no benefits” American party this week - has no platform other than “Trudeau sucks” and the truck-nut Flatlanders just nod their head.
Sadly, they could take the election, and our hopes for decent hospital care go from “soon” to “never, plebe”. Fucking Texans.
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It’s not popular.
It’s not popular amongst those with f*ck trudeau bumper stickers on their jacked up, under-utilized vanity trucks.
But nothing tied to his name is popular with them.
Canada-wide, it’s at -8 in terms of favorability.
Even if you attribute that to ignorance of how it works or even flat out hatred of Trudeau, it still isn’t popular. That is the political reality. It is GENERALLY unpopular.
Considering Trudeaus favorability ratings are currently like, -30, it’s actually significantly more popular than Trudeau himself, which makes me skeptical that the driving force really is just a dislike of Trudeau
Considering Trudeaus favorability ratings are currently like, -30, it’s actually significantly more popular than Trudeau himself, which makes me skeptical that the driving force really is just a dislike of Trudeau
I think that’s exactly the explanation of how the driving force really is just a dislike of Trudeau. The CPC has done a good job of tainting it as “Trudeau’s Carbon Tax”. The Environment is a top issue for Canadians. This is just anecdotal, but I live in a rural, conservative area and while you get a lot of ignorance or just hatred of any type of tax, you also get some people who logically understand how it works but simply hate it because it’s tied to Trudeau.
Maybe. But if it was that simple then I’d expect it to be at least as unfavorable as Trudeau.
I think it’s just people don’t understand it, and I think that’s frankly the fault of the liberals.
People hear “tax” and go “shit that’s a thing I have to pay, right?” And “carbon” and say “my home is heated by natural gas and I drive to work” and then say “the government wants to tax me not to freeze and to get to work?” And then they don’t connect the dots that the money that keeps getting direct deposited to them by the government is funded by the tax.
Like, if it was called “The Climate Bonus Payment” and the government had a little fucking fanfare around the distribution, it’d be wildly popular.
I think you’re looking at it the wrong way. The more likely conclusion to draw here is that the carbon tax is well liked enough that it can rise above Trudeau’s appalling favorability ratings. If people hated the tax itself as widely as you’re supposing, it would logically be even less popular than the leader it’s so indemnably associated with, no?
I think we roughly agree. The point I’m trying to make is that I think arguments around it being tied to just hating Trudeau are overblown. Even when Trudeau was net positive the carbon tax was net negative.
I think people’s perception of the carbon tax are based on their understanding of the carbon tax. I don’t people’s view of Trudeau significantly factor into it, at least not directly.
Conservatives are most likely to see it unfavorably. They’re most likely to not understand it. They might ALSO be more likely to see Trudeau unfavorably… But that’s kinda post hoc ergo propter hoc IMO
I don’t think your logic follows there, if anything that would prove it’s probably more related to Trudeau than anything else. If it was opposite and the law was less favorable than Trudeau yeah I would agree with your logic but it just doesn’t work the way you’re saying.
My argument is I think I don’t think a dislike of Trudeau is driving the unpopularity of the carbon tax. My argument is that misunderstanding of the carbon tax is driving the unpopularity of the carbon tax.
And my rationale is what you’re saying: why is the CT MORE popular than Trudeau if hatred for Trudeau is why the CT is is unpopular? I agree, it DOESN’T follow.
It’s popular with me, like most people I get back more than I put in.
Same here. That doesn’t mean it’s popular with most Canadians. And if it’s the issue to give us Poilievre, who comes with other downsides, then perhaps we should revisit it. It don’t matter how many up/down votes it gets among us.
Mostly it’s just unpopular because Trudeau’s name is attached (just like Obamacare, aka the Afforable Care Act, was in the US).
A few weeks back there was a comment made here (sorry, can’t find it) where the poster said he’d discussed the carbon rebate with a couple of guys who were adamantly against it and swore they never received the rebate.
Turned out one guy owed back taxes (so the rebate was withheld to pay it) and the other guy’s wife received theirs.
And that’s on the the lack of messaging to clarify the tax/rebate info for people.
Wait until the Cons win the next election and the rebate stops … right wing voters will be pissed then.
I remember that thread.
A plurality of Canadians don’t support it.
Though, given that most don’t realize they are receiving the benefits from it, this seems more a messaging issue than a policy one.
But this is kind of the issue. Any environmental legislation is going to have to battle through conservative disinformation. The alternative is the conservative’s plan which seems to “screw it, that’s somebody else’s problem. Specifically, the next generation’s.”
Right, so the title is false. You can’t say something is popular when most people who have some opinion on it have a negative one.
Ehhhhhh, I dunno. I mean, it’d be weird to argue donald trump isn’t popular, despite thr majority of folks having an unfavourable opinion of him.
I also think this is sort of like Obamacare which was famously incredibly popular with folks, including Republican voters, as long as you didn’t use the word Obamacare. If you loom at that abacus polling I linked earlier, you’ll note that most folks don’t even seem to realize the cheques they’ve received have anything to do with the carbon tax and many don’t understand they’re getting more than they pay in…
I’m not arguing that people know what it is or are aware of the actual implications.
In conservative media, sure.
Look at some polling numbers on the issue.
it’s not popular
The downvotes you’re getting disprove your assertion.
I wish they represented the general Canadian population. 😄
I think the problem is that it’s targeting residents, which is how you know the policy was drafted by anti-environmental proponents, regardless of what anyone says. Carbon taxes need to target companies, not residents. Companies and industries are the main producers of carbon emissions, the output of residents pales in comparison.
It’s not popular with people who don’t like money
Popularity has little bearing on merit.
But it does have bearing on the title.
