Thursday, June 19, 2008

Dion's Tax on Everything

I wonder how much the Conservatives are paying Stephane Dion. This Carbon Tax idea must be one of the biggest strategic blunders the Liberals have made with Dion as leader, and that is saying something.

First off, Dion is going to lose more of whatever miniscule amount of credibility he has left. He earlier promised not to introduce a carbon tax, so the conservatives have easily charged that he broke his word.

Second he has left himself wide open to the claim that he's trying to raise taxes. The conservatives have rightly labeled the idea as a permanent new tax, and I don't think anyone will believe that this plan won't increase taxes overall despite Liberal claims of offsetting tax cuts.

Third, it's not a very good idea. The tax will increase the cost of everything from heating and cooling to manufacturing and transportation of everything that we buy. That's why it's been called a tax on everything. Of course, the hardest hit businesses will be Canadian manufacturers that will have to pay a tax that none of their competitors have to pay. This comes at a time when the high Canadian dollar is already decimating the industry.

Finally, there couldn't be worse timing. A carbon tax might not always be a terrible idea, if oil drops to $20 a barrel and governments want to protect the environment by ensuring we don't needlessly pollute, go ahead introduce a carbon tax. Today the market is doing a fine job of encouraging energy efficiency and there's no need for a new tax to help. In fact a new tax now will just destroy the economy and cause untold hardship, everyone is reeling from the high cost of energy, we cannot afford to pay more.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you think that CBC G/M, T.STAR, will personally be exempted from payiny higher energy cost so as to continue protecting the liberals.
The liberals are so worried about the poor that the 40million dollars the liberals stole from the poor and all canadians have yet to be returned.

Anonymous said...

A disastrous tax for BC, Alberta and Sask. It is another income redistribution scheme designed to move millions of dollars from the west to Ont and Quebec. Surely when this is understood it will give rise again to talk of Western Separation.

Patrick O'Neil said...

Don't worry about Western separation, this tax doesn't have any legs.

jagdoc63 said...

I left Canada because of the high taxes and the lack of Health Care. dont you think that the Canadian economy is based on the U.S economy? most of the energy produced in Canada is shipped to the U.S. Why is gasoline cheaper in the U,S than Canada?
Taxes. This is another tax that will ultimately just hurt Canadians and fund Quebec to stop the from separating.
Just remember income tax was just to pay for the First World War. Your about to get screwed again