One of the growing members of the resistance of provincial premiers opposed to Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax believes the tax will hurt the Liberals in the next election.
New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs predicts the Trudeau government will be hit hard at the polls come October, as he believes New Brunswickers will be feeling the pain of the carbon tax.
“We believe the federal government’s carbon tax unfairly targets New Brunswick businesses and is too heavy a financial burden for ordinary residents who need to heat their homes in the winter and drive their cars to where they need to go,” Higgs said on Feb.10.
“We don’t need more tax.”
Higgs joined Conservative party leader Andrew Scheer for a town hall on Monday where Scheer slammed Trudeau’s plan for what it is — a tax that will only make life more expensive for ordinary Canadians while doing nothing for the environment.
Scheer, who is hoping for big gains in Atlantic Canada, told a packed room in Fredericton that “for Conservatives, job number one will be to repeal the carbon tax.”
New Brunswick has launched its own challenge to the federal carbon tax in court and is joining the suit launched by Ontario and Saskatchewan.
Higgs says New Brunswick will follow its own climate change plan, which he says will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The Progressive Conservative government in New Brunswick says it will be able to follow its climate change plan while balancing the budget.
The federal Liberals won all 32 seats in Atlantic Canada in the 2015 election, including 10 in New Brunswick.
Higgs believes Atlantic Canadians have received very little from their slate of Liberal MPs.
“There’s a real sense that although the Liberals went 32 for 32 in the last election, that the people of Atlantic Canada have gone zero for 32 since then,” he said.
