BC Premier David Eby and federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh have both come out and called for the carbon tax on consumers to be curtailed or eliminated, putting their policies much closer in line with their Conservative counterparts.
Why the sudden loss of principles? We’re sure the parties’ internal polling has shown the tax isn’t popular (what tax ever is?) and with the cost of living being a key household issue, politicians are shifting their priorities to the next election.
But even the best polls only capture the voices of people being asked the question. They don’t give a darn what our children or grandchildren think, and they care even less about the generations after them.
The more carbon we pull out of the ground and put into the atmosphere now, the more their forests will burn, the more destruction their storms will do, and the harder it will be to sustain the planet’s fragile biodiversity in their time. The damage we are contending with now is still just a preview of what’s coming.
There is consensus among experts that taxing pollution is the most efficient and least disruptive way to encourage people and industry to move to more sustainable options.
But politicians are more tempted by short-term self-interest than experts are.
When they come knocking on your door and asking for your vote, we want you to ask them – not on behalf of yourself but on behalf of everyone who isn’t being given a say – if not this climate policy, then which one?
Future generations don’t just deserve a solid answer. We owe them one.
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