Trudeau is gaslighting Canadians about the carbon tax
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Summary
In this episode of the Andrew Lawton Show, host Andrew Lawton is joined by the Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Chris Simons, to unpack the Prime Minister's carbon tax rebranding and the government's plan to get magically more money back every single time you pay it.
Transcript
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chris sims is the alberta director with the canadian taxpayers federation and joins us
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every monday once again always good to see you chris thanks for coming on today likewise thanks
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andrew for uh playing that clip again yeah do you feel again this is the whole carbon tax rebrand
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that we've talked about in past weeks where they say no no the problem isn't the policy the problem
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is that canadians don't understand it and their effort to do that is by just disingenuously
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claiming that we're all better off and again he says it's basic math if we're all better off by
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the tax if we're profiting from this then what was the point of it all that the only mechanism by which
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this makes sense for the government is if it's penalizing people okay so there's so much to
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unpack here i just wanted to say to your viewers who are sane we know okay we know what he's saying
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doesn't make sense we know that the tax will make you poorer that it doesn't make you richer when the
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government takes more of your money okay all of that is established what we're going to try to break
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down here is some of the pretzel like twisting and thinking that the prime minister is trying to engage
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in here okay so number one exactly to your point andrew if the carbon tax actually costs you nothing
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or you get magically more money back every single time you pay it well then where is the stick
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where's the deterrence for using oil and gas products because some people might forget with
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all this baffle gab that the prime minister is putting out the liberal government of canada put
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through a carbon tax in order to punish people for using things like oil and gas so gasoline diesel
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propane natural gas kerosene you name it if it comes from oil and gas you're going to get carbon
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taxed on it they're thinking way back when they first invented this thing was that they would stick
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you they would hit you with the stick until you moved over and switched to another energy source
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problem is most canadians the vast majority of us do not have access to an affordable abundant
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alternative energy source so there's nothing to switch to so it just turns into a punishment
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so that didn't work okay even if we only emit less than two percent of the world's global emissions
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fine that still didn't work because people still need to drive to work and heat their homes and eat
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food so then they had to change their comms plan it's like oh okay we're not robbing you blind
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we're actually making you richer that flies in the face of the idea of a deterrence that's the whole
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point of this carbon tax was to make stuff more expensive so that us dummies would switch to other
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things but that's not working out for him no and the hilarious thing is that if you were to do something
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if you were to enact a policy that makes people richer my goodness are there better ways to sell that
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like hey everyone here's a free check like this is just it makes you feel you're being hoodwinked
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well i mean you are being hoodwinked but the government's saying okay you pay us you know a dollar more
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every time you do this then we're going to give you five dollars every quarter and you're thinking
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well okay this is how con men speak yes this is how con men try to sell you on things they come up
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with this scheme that makes it so convoluted and complicated where it sounds good but you you know
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you're getting screwed at the end and that's the thing here i mean canadians need to know they're
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getting screwed because otherwise there would be no point and again the government's even like
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abandoned this because originally it was a price on carbon pollution shouldn't be free which in and
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of itself is based on a premise that's incredibly flawed but at the end of it i'm waiting to see
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the eight in ten canadians that are supposedly better off this is it so again you've nailed it so let's
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move on now to the magically eight and ten canadians are better off okay so just on the surface
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of it so i don't know you know lots of people have lots of different types of jobs but do you
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remember that time where you're in a coffee shop and you're this long lost buddy from school sits
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you down and starts explaining this new investment scheme he's got going it's a pyramid scheme okay
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you give him money he gives the other person money and then you magically at some point get your
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money back meanwhile he's taking off to mexico somewhere this is what this is okay but he just
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happens to be in a suit and tie and be standing in front of a tv camera so it all looks official
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so don't even take it from the canadian taxpayers federation okay like we've been fighting this
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forever we literally have the bumper sticker in the t-shirt we know this fine take it from the
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parliamentary budget officer okay it's an independent arm's length government watchdog that keeps an eye
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on their spending okay just the spending this year the average alberta family will be out nine hundred
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dollars net that is with the rebates factored in okay like they they've done the math on their big
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calculator okay and the way they do that is of course the carbon tax isn't just you filling up your
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little honda civic okay and spending around eight to ten dollars extra every time you fill up in the
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carbon tax it's not just that it's your home heating okay it is the food that the trucker had to haul to
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your grocery store it's the food that the farmer had to grow keeping his poultry barns warm and his grain dry
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all of this level of taxation cascades to the economy and you dear taxpayer are the ones who pay it the
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parliamentary budget officer to their credit did all of that math they said no no no it's not just
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your little rebate that you might be getting from your local gas station once you're finished filling
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up no it's the cascade of that carbon tax effect and that is why alberta families are out net nine
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hundred dollars this year and further it just to your point i'm so glad you described what gaslighting
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means because a lot of times i think people just use that term and they don't realize how
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awful and insidious gaslighting is right it's to put it in a more simplistic term it's like you're
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in the schoolyard and the bully is like grabbing your own hand and hitting you with it and he's
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saying stop hitting yourself stop hitting yourself i have an older brother i'm familiar yeah me too
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i got three of them right and so you know name 10 chocolate bars i still shudder right so this is what
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prime minister is doing here but on a macro scale and he's taking money from people and it's just
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fundamentally unfair which is why we're now seeing i think it's seven in ten premiers saying no more
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carbon tax they i think i think the tide is turned on this yeah and and then you know uh wab canoe the
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ndp premier in manitoba being very coy on this but but this is actually a good segue into some news in
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in my own province uh ontario uh they no no don't boo uh the one so bonnie crombie who's the uh new
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minister the new leader of the ontario liberal party now this is the party of kathleen wynn and
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dalton mcginty this is like one of the most rabid radical environmental uh parties in the country when
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they were there this is the country or the province that brought in cap and trade ontario that like
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terrible terrible record on this that brought in the wind turbines that were that just there's no
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business case for so bonnie crombie the leader of the ontario liberal party has said that if she wins the
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election and she defeats doug ford's progressive conservatives in 2026 there will be no provincial
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carbon tax for consumers now this is a big big development and i i mean the overton window what
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this tells me is that the overton window on the carbon tax has shifted where you can't really be
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elected without opposing it and provincial governments are getting this provincial parties
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are you have ndp leadership candidates in alberta saying no to the carbon tax you've got the ontario
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liberals the newfoundland liberals everyone but justin trudeau i know he's the last one to get it
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right i had this i sent to my friend i said bring an umbrella because pigs are flying in ontario today
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like i want to go get you know those dollar store fairy wings you can get our angel wings i want to go
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stick them on porky the waste hater our big uh our pig mascot in ottawa make make franco do cartwheels on
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parliament hill with it so to your point and again i lived in ontario at the time when the liberals
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were in charge and they destroyed the affordability for your power bill so i remember distinctly myself
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we had a very small bungalow that we were renting we were using natural gas for heat i was obsessively
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doing laundry like after midnight using only led uh bulbs and our power bill was still more than 400
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a month and i i was getting off easy compared to some like kathy katula and some of those folks who
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were living in more rural areas that were getting power bills that were more than a thousand dollars
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so the reason why i'm telling you this little story because it doesn't sound like carbon taxi stuff
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the same geniuses who invented the clean energy act in ontario and ruined people's affordability
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they scurried up after they got booted out of office they scurried from queens park guess where
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they scurried up to ottawa they're the ones that created the legislation for this current federal
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carbon tax my friend and so that is why andrew and i are highlighting this guys we have to keep an eye
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on these people but politically speaking bringing it around full circle to your point to have that same
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party leader now so different lady same party though and she's leader saying no provincial carbon tax
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politics my how things have changed so i don't know what's going to happen like is the prime minister
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going to you know see the lesson here and cave to politics by the way sorry dude but you're a
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politician like i don't know if you knew this but you're in the arena it is your job to listen to
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people and no it's like the number it's like the number one thing you do when you run for office you
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you come up with an excuse to say i'm not a politician but it's like well you because i tried that
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when i ran for office in 2018 i'm not a politician but that but i was a politician at that point doesn't
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mean i was like every other politician but once you're elected like the pretense is completely gone
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like dude your name is on a lawn sign like i'm literally watching you like kissing babies and
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shaking hands like you're a politician so this is it this is so we can't pop the champagne on this yet
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there's still a long way to go uh but it's really good to see the narrative changing as the kids say in
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school on the carbon tax because a few years ago you might remember the former leader of the
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conservative party even was totally in favor of the carbon tax he was just calling it something
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different and we were going to get a solar blender or whatever yeah exactly just like canadian tire but
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you get an e-bike so let me just ask briefly about this so doug ford has said that he cannot he does not
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have the latitude that say scott mo does so scott mo they've just stopped remitting the carbon tax
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but they also have a pure crown corporation energy provider which ontario does not and and so i i that
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that argument makes sense but what do we know the mechanism that bonnie crombie is proposing here
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so that she can get rid of this consumer carbon tax i think now i don't want to speak for her but my
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understanding was that if there were no federal tax she would not bring one home to roost in ontario
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okay so she's not pledging to do like the scott mo thing of just like somehow exempting from the
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federal hey if she could all the power to her i was gonna say i might even vote for her if she can do
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that yeah hey you want to throw shoes at our bad boyfriend girl i will help you i will send you
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shoes to throw at this man so the same way that danielle smith is doing here the premier of alberta
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it was funny she was like how on earth do i do what mo did do i create this little shell of a
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crown corporation like we don't usually like crown corporations but i understand the usefulness in this
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particular fight so she's trying to figure out how to do that too because she's in this kind of friendly
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competition with premier scott mo next door on how much each of them can stand up to prime minister
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trudeau yeah a little note though and again i'm speaking directly to the people who love your show
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who are probably fans of the premier like i personally have an awful lot of time for the lady
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um jurisdictionally though she's doing something wrong she's going to be increasing the provincial
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fuel tax here on the same day that prime minister justin trudeau is jacking up the federal carbon tax
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and like it's just math this is nothing personal that's not good she's increasing it by four cents a
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liter it's on schedule on april 1st the provincial fuel tax is going up four cents a liter and federally
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speaking the carbon tax is going up three cents a liter so not a good look like so the the alberta
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premier's really got to pay attention to the home roost here and not jack up her fuel tax especially on the
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same day that that prime minister trudeau is jacking up his carbon tax yeah very well said and judging by
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your t-shirt your kind offer to the country still stands that for the low price of one dollar a day
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you are one dollar a year that's right you will be her excellency governor general chris sims which
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you know what we could do a lot worse uh well pretty much anyone else would be worse so all right chris
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always good to talk to you thanks so much for coming on today bye thanks for listening to the andrew
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lawton show support the program by donating to true north at www.tnc.news