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Posted by Scott Tribe on June 30, 2008, at 10:51 pm |
Mark, if you’re not aware, runs the blog Section 15. He’s a former Green turned Liberal, and he’s gotten a bit of fame from this case (which he will probably tell you he’d rather not have).
Anyhow, Mark has been doing a very good job of responding to critics and questions about the Green Shift at his own blog and at various blog comment sites. I saw a question tonight that was asked why couldn’t the Green Shift be regional rather then national, where provinces would keep the revenue from a carbon tax rather then it being administered as a national program, and here is Mark’s reply:
If one [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on June 30, 2008, at 10:38 am |
Facts can be so inconvenient sometimes:
Liberal officials say a large portion of carbon tax would be collected in Alberta, given that Alberta companies emit more than 40 per cent of carbon emissions from major facilities in Canada. Many of those are oil, gas and mining facilities. In the fourth year of their plan, the tax would be $40 per tonne of emissions, with the 700 large final emitters across Canada – heavy industry and power plants – paying the majority of an estimated $15 billion tax revenues. Alberta’s share of income tax cuts, aimed in part at offsetting higher home heating and other prices as the tax is [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on June 28, 2008, at 11:59 am |
The very term “global warming” is unfortunately used by some sceptics to falsely deny that anything environmentally bad is happening on Earth nowadays; in their minds, if a region of Canada gets record snowfall, or if China gets record cold, that automatically debunks the theory, because that surely shows it isn’t getting warmer. What the reality of the situation is that the overwhelming scientific consensus worldwide is that “global warming” will lead to climate change, which will lead to an increase in extremes and unpredictability of weather conditions.
You can see those extremes just south of the border. Everyone knows about the extreme flooding in the US Midwest [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on June 27, 2008, at 7:58 am |
I caught this story over at Steve’s place last night about Liberal leader Stephane Dion talking to BC Premier Gordon Campbell about harmonizing the 2 carbon taxes in order to make sure they work together and don’t overlap.
I would also not be surprised if there wasn’t talk of harmonizing on another matter – that being to both BC and the federal Liberals to respond equally forcefully on attacks the federal Conservatives under Stephen Harper will lead on Dion’s “Green Shift”. Remember, when Campbell brought his version of a carbon tax in – John Baird made a statement saying more or less claiming that BC’s approach complimented the federal [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on June 26, 2008, at 10:09 am |
With regards to the Green Shift, it’s interesting to me that there are some folks out there who describe this Green Shift plan the Liberals are advocating as the work of Marxists, all designed to enslave Western Canada and enrich the East, while paradoxically, Andrew Coyne, that famous socialist columnist at Macleans, describes the current state of affairs – at least with regards to environmental policy – as the Liberals becoming like the Conservatives and the Conservatives turning into the 1970′s version of the NDP:
This is simply extraordinary. Where the Liberals talk of using price signals and harnessing market forces, the Tories now boast of their commitment to [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on June 21, 2008, at 11:42 pm |
I love the response of Dion to Harper claiming Canadians would get “screwed” by the Liberals plan:
Liberal Leader Stephane Dion has scolded Stephen Harper over his criticism of the Liberals’ so-called green shift, challenging the prime minister Saturday to an “adult” debate on the issue…”I call on the prime minister to debate with me any time on TV on this issue in a respectful, meaningful and adult way,” an angry Dion said on Toronto’s Centre Island…”It was vulgar and I don’t think Canadians are impressed by that,” Dion said of Harper’s comments Friday. “They want the prime minister to act as a prime minister.”
A perfect frame [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on June 20, 2008, at 6:44 pm |
Not only is he one of the most partisan prime ministers in our history, but he’s also one of the most classless:
The prime minister had some uncharacteristically blunt words Friday for a carbon tax proposal by Stephane Dion’s Liberals, saying it would “screw” the country… “(The carbon tax plan) is like the national energy program in the sense that the national energy program was designed to screw the West and really damage the energy sector – and this will do those things,” Harper told a small crowd in Saskatoon. “This is different in that this will actually screw everybody across the country.”
Harper has demeaned the House of [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on June 20, 2008, at 9:58 am |
I’ve often said before in response to other Liberal bloggers attacking Chantal Hebert for dumping on Dion in whatever column she’s written that it’s not news. It’s about as unique as seeing the sun rise in the east every morning.
For me, it would be notable if she actually praised him in one of her columns or give him credit over something. Today is such a day in her column where she critiques the Liberal leader as well as the Green Shift, and gives the strategy and the leader of the Liberals some credit. She calls the plan “gutsy”, and thought Dion gave “his best public performance to [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on June 19, 2008, at 2:37 pm |
…basically more or less boils down to Harper making the claim that Dion is lying to Canadians about the details of this plan. Of all the things one can say about Dion, even his opponents have said he was a man of integrity. To pull this line of attack out as a means of trying to discredit the Green Shift is simply in my view a dead-ender for the Cons., but I invite them to try and keep using that attack line if they wish, because all it does is expose the fact that the Conservatives simply have no credible plan of their own to counter with, so they’re [...]
Posted by Scott Tribe on June 18, 2008, at 10:02 am |
Now this is very interesting indeed:
The Green party, meanwhile, will leap out ahead of the Liberal announcement today with a detailed accounting of its carbon-tax proposal. With its more sweeping taxes and savings, the Green plan may help pave the way to making the Liberal plan look more modest and practical, though Green Leader Elizabeth May, already in an informal co-operation pact with Dion, says that’s not the motivation.
Liz May will certainly say that isn’t her motivation, but remember, she and the Greens are on record as saying they don’t mind other political parties “borrowing” their ideas, because in their view, that benefits everyone in the long [...]
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