I can’t say I am shocked, this isn’t the first dishonest attack by the Conservatives on carbon taxes.
A prominent resource economist has pronounced himself disgusted with “dishonest” Conservative attack ads on a Liberal carbon tax proposal that’s yet to be unveiled.
“The Conservatives — and I say this with great sadness because I don’t care which political party is in power — but if we’re going to do anything about climate change, we’re going to have to be honest with people,” Marc Jaccard of Simon Fraser University told CTV.ca on Tuesday…
“This is just totally dishonest.”
“Every one of those ads should say, ‘Oh and by the way, your income taxes are going down if (the Liberals) do put in that tax,’ but it’s not there.”
The Liberals say their plan, unlike the Conservative one, offers offsetting tax cuts.
Marc Jaccard was recently interviewed on CBC’s Quirks and Quarks.
Even worse the Conservative climate change plan is riddled with loopholes and, if past experiences hold, is bound to fail.
Jaccard… said the Conservatives’ own policy on reducing greenhouse gas emissions won’t work because it doesn’t put a price on carbon for consumers.
“Their policy is to regulate industry and then have these offset loopholes where industry can subsidize consumers. But those are the types of policies that have never worked in the past,” he said.
Even Environment Canada doesn’t have much faith in the Conservatives plan.
A new Environment Canada report “discreetly” posted on the Department website shows that the Canadian government’s climate change plan will reduce greenhouse gas by a fraction of what was originally promised…
The plan shows that many existing climate change measures such as the transit tax credit, regulations to increase biofuels production and the banning of incandescent light bulbs will result in a fraction of the greenhouse gas emission reductions that they were previously estimated to achieve.
This dishonest attack is simply the latest in a long line showing that the Conservatives have yet to consider the environment a serious issue, despite their claims to the contrary.
Well, of course, the Conservative attacks on the Dion carbon tax are dishonest. This is a serious issue but the Conservatives don’t take it seriously. It demands a serious debate. But the Tories have no interest in a serious debate.
They send out their wreckers and hatchet men led by Peter Van Loan to muddy the waters. A pity.
Whooee! The dumbass ad campaign appears to have fallen flat — maybe even backfired. The Hill Times says 60% have a negative perception of the ads. Only hardcore Con’s see the campaign as a winner.
The ones who have the most egg on their faces aren’t the Con backroom boys, though. The ones who should be most embarrassed are Mike Duffy and the TO Sun. Both gave huge coverage that included displaying the ads for free. Duffy expressed delight that the t-shirt they sent him was in his size. He held it up and he also played the gas pump spots in their entirety. The Sun turned over its entire front page to a big yellow ad masquerading as news.
Duffy and the Sun oughta feel mightily used by the Con’s but I don’t think they mind being used. Shameless.
JB