Pierre-Yves Polyven announces his plan to suspend Canada's $10 per litre gas tax. It's a bold plan, but it's not the first time that a Conservative leader has proposed such a plan, and it's one that could have a big impact on the upcoming election.
00:00:00.000Hey guys, Wyatt Claypool here, and welcome back to the National Telegraph YouTube channel.
00:00:05.860I feel like this is the first week in a while where Pierre Polyev and the Conservatives
00:00:10.940now have a rhetorical upper hand on Mark Carney's liberals. I don't mean like an upper hand like
00:00:17.020they're now leading them in the polls. The liberals are still leading. Oftentimes when a party takes a
00:00:21.840substantial polling lead, even when they start falling off a cliff, that fall off a cliff still
00:00:26.980takes a couple of months. Now, I don't think the liberals are so damaged that in a month the
00:00:31.860conservatives are going to be leading them by five or six points. I think within a month and a half
00:00:35.980or so, you'll see it be a tight and competitive race again. But rhetorically speaking, based on
00:00:41.520the political narratives each side are putting out, Polyev has a big advantage on Mark Carney.
00:00:47.480Carney's liberals had a great run in January, February. I, as a conservative, didn't like any
00:00:52.440of the things they were doing. But from a purely neutral perspective, the headlines were great for
00:00:57.920Carney in January. Matt Jenneru crossed the floor and joined him. He had the Davos speech he gave
00:01:03.580that caused him to get into a small tiff with Donald Trump that benefited him. Trump made some
00:01:09.020more provocative moves on trade, which ended up having that rally around the flag kind of effect
00:01:15.460for the Liberal Party. The China Trump, although again, a international policy disaster, at least
00:01:22.060in early January made Carney look like some international deal maker. Yes, it's not even a
00:01:27.720good deal, but again, the short-term neutral appearance of it made him look like he's getting
00:01:33.980stuff done. Now, as the details of that deal come out and the Michael Ma scandal hit, it's not
00:01:39.420looking so good anymore. But now that's where we land ourselves today, where Polly and the
00:01:44.940Conservatives are actually taking a really good position on the gas tax right now that is putting
00:01:50.400Mark Carney way offside most Canadians because he spent himself into such a deep hole, he can't
00:01:56.360actually offer any tax relief right now. It proves why you don't want to deficit spend the way the
00:02:01.840liberals did. Because if anything happens, like the war in Iran and gas prices start shooting up,
00:02:07.320you can't actually offer people anything because the bank is not only dry, it's so deep in the
00:02:12.720red you can't even take another loan out. But in just a second here, I want to show you guys some
00:02:17.200clips of Polyev announcing his gas tax suspension plan, and then we'll talk a little bit about the
00:02:22.200politics of what are going on right now in Ottawa. But before we get into it, I just want to remind
00:02:27.000you guys, if you like the show, make sure to leave a like on this video, subscribe if you are not yet
00:02:31.920a subscriber, consider hitting the join button and financially contributing to the channel every
00:02:36.320month, and of course leave a comment on what you think about all this. I also want to mention I'm
00:02:41.380currently sitting in Victoria because I work for Dallas Brody and 1BC at the legislature. Crazy
00:02:46.820things are going on with the B.C. conservative leadership race. You might know that Dallas
00:02:50.520is actually allied now with one of the leadership candidates, Uri Falmer, who wants to have a
00:02:55.360coalition government deal with 1B.C., where 1B.C. gets five guaranteed seats in the legislature,
00:03:00.220and then if the conservatives have a minority government, they will work with 1B.C.,
00:03:04.480but the leadership race just exploded with Caroline Elliott apparently completely backing
00:03:08.980out of all the debates because, say it with me, it's the Trudeau line. She's just not ready.
00:03:15.620She's clearly a liberal who couldn't keep up the act of being a conservative on a debate stage, and so she completely dropped out.
00:03:22.180But if you're in BC and you're still a conservative member, I would recommend voting Yuri Fulmer number one on your ballot if you're not already a 1BC member.
00:03:31.220Anyways, so let's get into this video with Pierre Polyev announcing his gas tax suspension.
00:03:38.260Liberals tax Canadians again and again and again for fuel.
00:04:15.880We actually went over that press conference.
00:04:18.240That's what I said in my last video was like his absolutely disastrous press conference.
00:04:22.420He was asked on four big topics, a question by a journalist.
00:04:26.120And he turned back into, well, on that issue, I've been having a lot of conversations about it.
00:04:34.440and we've been talking to people, you know, you could say that Mark Carney sounded like Caroline
00:04:39.000Elliott trying to speak just to take extra shots at her. But it was bad. And one of the questions,
00:04:44.820of course, was on the gas tax, if he was thinking about suspending the gas tax or lowering gas taxes
00:04:50.580or anything like that, because the war in Iran has made gas in places like Victoria, where I'm at,
00:04:56.200over $2. And so naturally, the government's actually making massive amounts of revenue on
00:05:00.500all these price rises, because as Polyev is saying, not only is the gas tax is still on the
00:05:06.260price, but then the GST compounds on top of the price increase. And so what we have now is the
00:05:13.280liberals looking like they just desperately need their revenues. So they're not willing to give
00:05:17.140anyone any sort of tax relief on this issue. And now Polyev is calling their bluff by saying that
00:05:22.660he's going to do it after Carney kind of semi made it clear that he can't. So even if he does
00:05:27.140it at this point. It's because he's being pressured by Polyam, not because he actually
00:05:30.100wanted to do it. It's time to lead. Lead for affordable gas, groceries, and homes. That's
00:05:37.100why today I'm calling on the government to suspend all fuel taxes for the rest of the year.
00:05:43.580A policy that would save 25 cents a liter, about $20 a fill-up, and $1,200 for the average family
00:05:52.440of four between now and the end of the year. And by the way, that $1,200 a year, based on the
00:05:59.620conservative's calculations, let's assume it's accurate. And if you want to, just because of,
00:06:03.860you know, political exaggeration happens a lot, let's assume it's even just $1,000.
00:06:08.060That's multiple times bigger than the tax relief that Carney ended up giving families.
00:06:13.900Because Polyeva is right. They ended up bringing their own fuel standards tax in to compensate for
00:06:19.040the fact they got rid of the carbon tax, which means it basically still exists. But the tax
00:06:23.720relief that Carney gave on income was only half a percent for the first year, and then he'll
00:06:29.480raise it to a full percent after a couple years off of the first $50,000 that you make. So the
00:06:36.240government will tax you one point less on the first $50,000, even though you don't actually
00:06:41.760pay any money on the first $18,000, which even at the highest estimates, even if you do what the
00:06:47.920liberals love to do. And you say, oh, in terms of household income, this is how much you would
00:06:52.440save. It's like you have to jam a bunch of individuals together to pretend like, oh,
00:06:55.940wow, you're going to save $500. No, no, no. Two people making $100,000 combined could get back
00:07:03.460with split income $500. It's barely anything. And a gas tax cut would in fact do far more for
00:07:11.300the average person. It wouldn't even just save you $1,000 to $1,200 a year. It would save you
00:07:16.020more because the grocery stores you shop at and other services that you need are also not having
00:07:22.360to pay the gas tax themselves, which means their prices would actually be able to fall. So right
00:07:27.740now, Carney's in a bit of a pickle because what's he going to do? Offer nothing? What's he? He's
00:07:33.780just going to say, well, you know, Polyev is exploiting like the war in Iran to make me look
00:07:40.260bad. Like he looks bad. There's no way around it. This actually happens a lot in BC politics,
00:07:45.560I find where you'll have an MLA make a good suggestion to the government, and then they'll
00:07:50.900accuse them of exploiting an issue. It's like, I'm not exploiting an issue. You guys suck at
00:07:56.260this particular area of policy. We have a better idea. We're not sowing division. We're just not0.99
00:08:03.260suggesting your stupid plan. We're suggesting a much better plan. Anyway, so I just want to now1.00
00:08:09.300jump down to some other posts that I've saved I want to talk about. So this is the other post
00:08:14.820that Polyev has made on the subject. It says Canadian gas prices are nearly 20 percent higher
00:08:20.540than in the U.S. because of liberal taxes on gas and Mark Carney's liberal plan to raise them even
00:08:25.880higher. And Mark Carney's liberals plan to raise them even higher. Put zero tax on gas to save all
00:08:31.020drivers 25 cents a liter at the pump now. And I think that this is a great idea. Now, the one part
00:08:37.320I'd criticize is I've heard he said it should be a temporary measure. The conservatives need a bold
00:08:43.260tax plan. And a bold tax plan needs to be a little bit more than this. It can't be temporary. It
00:08:48.600needs to be permanent, whether you're going to temporarily get rid of the gas tax, but when you
00:08:53.080bring it back, you'll make a big income tax cut or get rid of the gas taxes permanently, one or
00:08:59.320the other. But at least at the moment, objectively, he is getting the rhetorical upper hand on Kearney,
00:09:04.580who looks like he is completely fumbling the affordability issue at the moment.
00:09:09.940But now I want to move on to some other stuff. Let's talk a little bit about the liberals trying to defend the price on carbon that they currently have at a time when people can't afford it.
00:09:21.100Two out of the four things that you were hoping to hit by this deadline, the prime minister saying he had a lengthy conversation.
00:09:26.660Oh, actually, this is for, actually, this doesn't actually have to do with the tax on gas. This has to do with the liberals insisting on a high industrial carbon tax when it comes to negotiating with the Alberta government on their MOU for a pipeline.
00:09:42.220So at the same time, the world needs more energy than ever because of the war in Iran.
00:09:47.220They are insisting on high industrial carbon taxes that would make drilling for oil in Alberta and moving it through a pipeline not really worth it because of the high costs.
00:09:57.420They're effectively trying to kill a pipeline with their stringent requirements that are unreasonable at a time when everyone is begging for gas.0.96
00:10:07.360Two out of the four things that you were hoping to hit by this deadline.0.97
00:10:11.020the prime minister saying he had a lengthy conversation with premier smith yesterday
00:10:15.660is alberta still committed to an industrial carbon price of 130 dollars per time that's what's in our
00:10:23.260memorandum of understanding and we know um and and they know because they would be hearing it
00:10:29.180from industry as well that a strong predictable industrial carbon price is important that's what
00:10:36.860what industry is looking for. They're looking for that certainty. Industry, apparently, in oil and
00:10:42.040gas, the oil and gas industry is looking for $130 a ton carbon prices. Really? You couldn't twist
00:10:49.940their arm and make them take 50 or maybe even zero? You have to do $130 a ton. This is always
00:10:56.720the biggest lie ever that all liberal regulations and taxes, if you get rid of them, in fact, we
00:11:03.160couldn't do all the things that we're doing. In fact, industry wants it. They're waiting outside
00:11:07.820the parliament right now with their wrists clasped together saying, please handcuff us.0.76
00:11:14.100Please ruin our industry. We need it. We can't ship globally unless we kneecap ourselves,
00:11:19.420even though the Americans don't do this and they don't have any problem sending their gas elsewhere.
00:11:24.280Saudi Arabia doesn't do this. They somehow are able to sell their gas. Qatar, Russia,
00:11:30.280All these countries don't have carbon taxes, but apparently if Canada gets rid of them, everyone's going to be like, oh, my goodness, Canada's become far right.
00:11:40.300This is almost as bad as forced labor, somebody could say.
00:11:44.200And so we need to continue to work towards that.
00:11:48.260You can get really nerdy in the details when we start talking about an industrial carbon prices or pieces that still need to be worked out.
00:11:55.040I think it's really important that in this moment, we're all at the table, we're having that
00:12:00.540conversation. And that, you know, as the prime minister said, there'll be more to say soon. I
00:12:05.560don't want to get too much into the details of a negotiation out here in public, because we know
00:12:11.980it's progressing well at the table. And that's really where it's progressing so well at the
00:12:17.160table. In fact, that the Kearney liberals blew past the deadlines to actually come to an agreement
00:12:22.840on these issues. And it wasn't because Daniel Smith and the Alberta government weren't willing
00:12:28.160to play ball. They were. It's that the carny liberals won't get back to them. Because the
00:12:33.560thing is that they're kind of, you know, not holding the best set of cards right now. The
00:12:38.760carny liberals aren't. Because Alberta, you know, Daniel Smith has a good reason to say that that's0.87
00:12:43.960a ridiculously high industrial carbon tax to have to stick to. And so we should be trying to actually
00:12:49.260lower that so we can actually make it profitable to be in the Alberta oil and gas industry so that
00:12:54.420these companies will actually sign on to a pipeline. It's like they're having to sit down
00:12:58.500and explain to Carney, the economist and former central banker, how a free market works. How if
00:13:06.180you jack up the price of everything in the industry, eventually the industry is not going
00:13:09.900to even bother doing anything. They're not going to start a pipeline for an environment,
00:13:14.720a regulatory environment that makes it unprofitable to move oil and gas through the
00:13:18.560pipeline, or at least not profitable enough that it's even worth it. It's frustrating. But at the
00:13:23.740same time that Polyev is promising to cut taxes on gas, you have the liberals holding up a pipeline
00:13:30.580deal because they're not being pro, because they can't come to an agreement on the gas price or
00:13:37.400the gas tax, or sorry, the industrial carbon tax. It's absolutely pathetic. Polyev had this fun0.98
00:13:43.360moment actually at his press conference about the carbon tax on on and the gas taxes where he ended
00:13:49.480up responding to a heckler who's trying to yell out at him during the event now other countries
00:13:54.780have done it thank you she wants her tax cut on gas good folks thank you there's someone who wants
00:14:03.920to pay less for gas and the australians are look and he's having fun these days unlike mark carney
00:14:10.920Again, you look at the tapes of Mark Carney doing stuff at press conferences, and he is very, I find, thin-skinned once again.
00:18:36.580So who could say why we need to cut taxes?
00:18:38.980Taxes move up and down for other reasons.
00:18:40.860So we can't cut the gas tax because I don't even know what she's attempting to say.
00:18:45.860This is not a response to anything at all.
00:18:48.920and prices are strategic and competitive in ottawa i know a couple streets where the gas
00:18:53.320is always cheaper than in other parts of town even though the the brand of the gas station
00:18:58.120is the same i think we all have tricks like that um so okay i guess so apparently guys if you need
00:19:04.040cheap gas go to whatever ottawa bubble that she's living in where the gas is slightly cheaper so0.95
00:19:10.120stop whining you don't need the gas taxes eliminated you just need to go to whatever
00:19:15.640part of ottawa this lady lives in specific comparisons like the ones on the the sign0.61
00:19:20.760behind him always fraught comparing with other jurisdictions also fraught you know the
00:19:26.200jurisdictions australia spain ireland that he was comparing their choice to lower their excise taxes
00:19:32.360on gas those are consumers that regularly pay gas prices well above what canadians pay those
00:19:38.440are countries that don't have a domestic supply of gas like we're privileged to enjoy in this country
00:19:43.080so well we're kind of like like what a kind of like substitute teacher kind of voice was that
00:19:49.060to go into well you know they don't really have the privilege of having gas at home the way we
00:19:53.560do it's like okay i i get it they spend more on gas canadians also drive more and also what does
00:20:01.780that have to do with anything i don't care what the spanish are paying for gas i care what we're
00:20:06.660paying for gas because it's all relative. We relatively pay more in gas now than we did a
00:20:12.700month ago. By the way, if we start comparing ourselves to other countries, we are not making
00:20:18.320that much compared to people in other countries. Canadians, on average, make less than people in
00:20:23.800the state of Alabama. Alabama not exactly being in the upper seats when it comes to incomes in
00:20:31.020america it's in fact a lower than average state and we're below that lower than average state
00:20:37.140so yeah it does matter when taxes go up what genuinely this becomes a what does this have
00:20:43.660to do with the tea the price of the tea in china kind of a point she's not i thought for a second
00:20:48.300she was maybe like a liberal mp no this is just some random lady from the cbc like really simping1.00
00:20:53.340hard for carny and trying to like dismiss the need for a gas cut gas prices as you know complicated
00:20:59.960Lots of factors. But he's suggesting one lever the government could pull. And I think most interesting to me, earlier this week, Mark Carney didn't entirely say no, but he didn't fully say yes to the extent that Polyev would have him do.
00:21:12.340so there was that liberal flack catcher there trying to make as many excuses for carny as
00:21:19.080possible he didn't necessarily say no okay he didn't say yes if he said i might explore it
00:21:24.920that would be an open door that even that's kind of weak you should just say yes at that point like
00:21:30.300at least cut it a little bit say i'm gonna cut it by a third or half or whatever so we can get down
00:21:34.820to somewhat normal prices she's like they're saying they're like oh well you know he didn't
00:21:40.000technically say no, then spit in the journalist's face, is he going to do it or not? Like, are you
00:21:46.620a liberal party apparatchik, or are you from the CBC? These things are becoming effectively
00:21:53.080indistinguishable from one another. But overall, the flopping around on the deck of the ship by
00:21:59.160the media in response to what Kapaliev is doing really demonstrates that, yes, he does have the
00:22:04.240rhetorical upper hand right now, Carney has been outplayed, his own overspending trying to get
00:22:09.340people to like him have actually put him in the corner because he has spent so much money on
00:22:13.740programs that really won't see positive effects for him for years to the point where he can't
00:22:18.360afford to pay for something in the here and now that would actually be popular he's too busy
00:22:22.980spending money on trains that won't be built for two decades but what do i know anyways so that
00:22:29.180should be enough for me today guys thank you for watching the show make sure to like the video
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00:22:46.920for watching. I'll see you all next time.