Crazy, Screws everyone, likes long walks on the beach

Yes. It is crazy. Yes. He is trying to screw everyone.

Sounds like the George Street festival to me.

There are some absolute truths that have to be spoken about carbon taxes and other methods of taxing carbon use:

ANY regulation of GHG emissions is a defacto tax. Dion's plan just calls it that. The regulatory impact costs of Turning the Corner makes the carbon tax look like the 2% reduction of the GST. It is the mother of all carbon taxes and YOU will ultimately feel the pinch as the price of oil goes up.

The exceptions to the Carbon Shift plan are, sadly, lamentable and politically driven. Proposed by a politician looking to get elected. Shock-ing. They are as counter-intuitive as saying that regulating industry will not affect the cost to the consumer.

The idea that some moron can sue a politician in Trade-Mark for stealing their idea is, also, lamentable. The test is "are the Liberal's PASSING OFF on the plaintiff's mark in order to gain a business advantage?" Alternatively, is the Liberal plan adversely affecting the mark of the registered/common law holder? I guess a case can be made under the latter knowing that NO ONE had ever heard of them before...

The litigious phase of Canadian Politics is now consuming both the federal court and the provincial court, it would seem. It is an era in and of itself. Maybe I should write a book about how parties are litigating to see political benefit.



Deep down, I can pick apart the Carbon Shift for its exceptions. I can get upset about the the fact that the cost of business is going to increase. I can lament the misunderstanding by our political leaders of industrial realities (particularly in Canada) and that driving the cost up here will not offset emissions globally and may in fact make them worse.


BUT - I can see that the solution to the problem is YOU and that this plan is the first to actually have a bottom line "shift" to the individual user that will affect individual behaviour. YOU have to stop emitting GHGs. This is a way to do that. It is crazy. It is going to screw everyone. The PM is right. But it is the first plan that is actually going to reduce Canada's GHGs. And over time, after the carbon has settled, the principal of polluter pays has to affect more than just the corporations that create GHGs. It affects everyone equally. Crazy, eh?

The issue isn't whether or not it is crazy and will screw everyone - the issue is whether or not it is the correct thing to do and is the "top" priority which will drive the future. I think it is a gambit, to be sure. And I think the timing is...poor given what is going on in the world oil markets. But there is never a good time to have ideas like this - that is what leadership is. To the millions of Canadians who have begun of their own accord to shift their behaviour - it is a signal that someone is trying to influence that type of change.

And I have been saying it for years