Don't Be Fooled

Global News reports that in 2018 Doug Ford instructed his Environment Minister, Rod Phillips, to make environmental legislation ineffective:

When Ontario Premier Doug Ford first took office in 2018, his first environmental minister was given a simple yet central task: get climate legislation out of the way of business.

The mandate letter written for the province’s minister of environment, conservation and parks suggests his task was to remove environmental and climate legislation, not to create more of it.

Rod Phillips, the first in a string of Ford’s environmental ministers, was told to scrap the province’s cap-and-trade program, fight the federal government on the price on carbon and review environmental laws to make sure they weren’t cumbersome for voters and didn’t obstruct business interests.

Phillips was asked to work with other ministers to look at “various pieces of environmental legislation that impact businesses” and make sure the laws and regulations are “as flexible and nimble as possible.” He was instructed to make sure environmental assessments — a complicated set of studies designed to predict the impact of new projects on the areas around them — could be completed within a calendar year.

In October 2018, months into its first term, the Ford government officially killed cap-and-trade — triggering the federal carbon backstop that added a surcharge to the price of fuel in Ontario.

To combat that, the environment minister was also told to work with his colleagues at the attorney general’s office to fight the “imposition of a regressive carbon tax on Ontario’s citizens” and to use legal action to “stop this carbon tax in its tracks.”

Now, Pierre Poilievre is touring the country promising to "axe the tax." Neither man is a friend of the planet. Don't be fooled.

Image: The Toronto Star

The March To Oblivion

The United Nations has just told us that we have twelve years to prevent a global catastrophe. Global warning will soon have disastrous consequences. But the U.N. report isn't on Doug Ford's and Jason Kenny's radar. Geoffrey Stevens writes:

Appearing together before an overflow crowd of 1,500 true believers in Calgary, the two provincial leaders — one in power, the other in waiting — pledged their mutual, undying opposition to carbon taxes, and they took turns swatting enthusiastically at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Trudeau, of course, is doubly damned among Conservatives in Alberta. Not only is he a Liberal who is friendly with NDP Premier Rachel Notley, he is the son of Pierre, the Great Satan of oilpatch That was back in 1980, but the grievance doesn't just linger. It bursts into flame whenever the issue of national carbon pricing is raised. Justin Trudeau did have the backing of both Ontario and Alberta for it, but Ford has withdrawn Ontario's support and Alberta's support, which was contingent on completion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, is wavering and may be lost.

That was red meat for the Calgary "Scrap the Carbon Tax" rally last Friday. Neither Kenney nor Ford is much of an orator, but both have a bit of Donald Trump's knack for exploiting a sympathetic crowd.

The crowd roared approval when Kenney called Notley's carbon tax "the biggest lie in Alberta's history" and promised that a United Conservative Party government would repeal it. It roared again when the Ontario premier bestowed the blessing of Ford Nation: "Stay strong, your next election is one that conservatives can win, an election we will win, and an election we must win."mythology, who will never be forgotten or forgiven for his notorious National Energy Program.

The biggest lie in Canadian history? Other provincial premeirs are falling in line behind Ford and Kenny:

On his way to Calgary, Ford stopped in Saskatchewan long enough to pick up the support of Premier Scott Moe and his Saskatchewan Party. Meanwhile, Manitoba's Progressive Conservative premier, Brian Pallister, announced he would no longer support a carbon tax.

If, as expected, New Brunswick joins the flock, Doug Ford, the most improbable of premiers, would find himself at the head of a block of five provinces out to do battle with a federal government that is supported — for now, at least — by two major provinces, British Columbia and Quebec.

What Ford, Kenny and the others are selling is the biggest lie in Canadian history -- that we'll be alright as long as oil is combustible and we can live in purposeful ignorance.

And they march -- cheering -- to oblivion.

Image: wis.pr