Liberals throughout Canada are facing the fallout from Stéphane Dion’s Tax Trick.
While almost every Canadian can expect to pay more for gas, electricity and everything else they buy if Mr. Dion has his way, the residents of some provinces can expect to be hit particularly hard.
For instance, Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald has condemned the Dion Carbon Tax, saying that it will “penalize Nova Scotians for the fact of our geography and the type of energy we use at the current time.” (Chronicle Herald, June 20, 2008)
Premier MacDonald’s concerns were echoed across the political spectrum as the Dion Tax Trick was also soundly rejected by the Nova Scotia Liberals and NDP.
Now, in a desperate attempt at damage control, senior Dion lieutenant and Liberal policy architect Scott Brison is already rewriting Mr. Dion’s proposal in order to deflect the outrage from his home province.
The Halifax Chronicle Herald has reported that Mr. Brison “acknowledged a tax on carbon could lead to higher electricity costs,” and proposed a previously unannounced new side-deal to “cushion” the pain that the Dion Tax Trick will cause. (Chronicle Herald, June 25, 2008)
Nova Scotians, and all Canadians, are right to ask why these “side deals” never were mentioned in Mr. Dion’s 44-page carbon tax plan.
Nova Scotians, and all Canadians, are right to ask how the Dion Tax Trick could truly be “revenue neutral” when, less than a week after launching it, the Liberals are already making excuses and exceptions for the people who would be hurt the most.
Nova Scotians, and all Canadians, are right to look at this as just the latest of many flip-flops from the Dion Liberals, dating back to when Mr. Dion himself crusaded against carbon taxes as “bad policy.” They are right to worry about what other Liberal flip-flops the future holds and what else Mr. Dion is hiding.
Nova Scotians, in every region from every party and from every background, know that their province would be shafted by the Dion Tax Trick. If Scott Brison really cared about Nova Scotians and their cost of living, he would have opposed this permanent tax on everything in the first place
The Dion Tax Trick. Everybody sees through it.