Liberal spin doctors are working overtime looking for new ways to distract Canadians from paying any attention to Stéphane Dion’s plans to impose a massive new carbon tax on Canadian families.
One of the Liberals’ favourite tricks has been to play games with the title they use for Mr. Dion’s tax grab. In recent months Liberal verbal gymnastics have included labeling it a “tax shift”, saying they are “putting a price on carbon,” and, in the current flavour of the week, calling this tax grab a “green shift.”
By changing the name of the tax, the Liberals hope they can “green shift” people’s attention away from what the Dion Carbon Tax really is: a permanent new tax that will destroy jobs and drive up the cost of gas, electricity and everything else.
Unfortunately for Mr. Dion, Canadians are not being fooled: The Premiers of Ontario, Saskatchewan, Nunavut and Alberta have all raised concerns about a carbon tax. So have the members of the CFIB. And more and more, everyday Canadian families are making their opposition known as well.
Today, the official representative of truckers throughout Eastern Canada leveled a dire warning about the impact of a carbon tax on families in his region:
“Transportation costs would rise with increased fuel costs as a result of carbon taxes, prices of consumer goods and food would rise, inflation would then in turn rise.
The average consumer would see this rise in the form of paying $8 for a head of lettuce at your local grocery store. The proposed personal tax cuts would be offset by the dramatic increase in costs for food, clothing and medicine, for example, all of which we import and arrive here by truck.”
- Peter A. Nelson, Executive Director, Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association (Times & Transcript (Moncton), June 6, 2008.)
To date, Mr. Dion has been able to ignore the legitimate worries of everyday Canadians, whether they are truckers or working families, who would be left unable to afford a trip to the grocery store to instead focus on his next phony sales pitch.
But all of the trickery, weasel words or fake environmental packaging in the world will not work. Canadians won’t be fooled into embracing Stéphane Dion’s massive, permanent new tax on everything.
Stéphane Dion. Not a Leader. Not worth the risk.