With a looming byelection in the Toronto area riding of Durham, local Conservatives rallied to “send a message” to the Trudeau government to scrap the federal carbon tax.
Around 100 people showed up to a Conservative party’s “Axe-the-Tax” rally at Durham College in Oshawa last Saturday, hosted by Conservative candidate and former broadcaster Jamil Jivani.
Scrapping the carbon tax has been a flagship promise by Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who’s been holding “axe the tax” rallies across Canada.
“(Axe the tax) means asking for Justin Trudeau to extend the same courtesy to the rest of Canada as he did for Atlantic Canadians,” Jivani said, “to put a pause on the carbon tax, which is driving up the cost of living for Canadians.”
He said there are people of all types struggling with affordability.
“It’s one of the ways that the federal government is increasing the cost of living for everybody,” he said.
“I think it’s questionable that the carbon tax is helping with climate change in the first place.If the carbon tax is so essential to fighting climate change, why was it paused in Atlantic Canada?“
Jivani was referring to the Liberal government’s pause on the home heating oil carbon tax, which triggered a call from premiers in other parts of the country to extend the pause nationally – which the Liberals have refused to do.
Jivani said the Conservative approach to climate change would emphasize “technology, not taxes.”
He said developing nuclear facilities and new technologies like small modular reactors will make it easier to develop clean energy that he thinks will reduce Canada’s carbon output.
“It’s a way to not pit the environment against economic growth,” he said. “We believe that through technology, we can do both things…grow the economy, and we can help be good stewards of the environment.”
Jivani also made a pitch to attract younger voters to the Conservative cause.
“We came to Durham College for a reason,” he said. “We wanted to show young people and students that we are also here to make a difference for them.”
As a millennial, Jivani said he wanted to reach out to young people to say, “What can we do to make sure that you’re growing up in a country where you feel like you’ve got a future and that the best days of Canada are ahead, not behind us?”
The Conservative MP for the neighbouring Oshawa riding, Colin Carrie, was at Jivani’s rally to show support.
“It’s just common sense that (the carbon tax) is going to drive up the cost of everything,” he said, noting the carbon tax puts an artificial price on farmers, truckers, warehouses and grocery stores, all the way up to the consumer driving their vehicles to get food.
“It’s a unique Canada thing going on here that’s making us less competitive.”
According to The World Bank 39 countries currently put a price on carbon. Globally, revenue from carbon pricing in 2021 rose by almost 60 per cent from 2020 to $84 billion.
Carrie said greenhouse gas emissions and pollution is a global problem.
“Right now in the world, China, India, and other countries are building coal-fired [power] plants that are polluting,” he said, “if we could provide clean Canadian natural gas and get people off coal, that will make a significant difference.”
At the end of the rally, three pro-Palestine protesters showed up to send a message of their own.
Colin, a student at Durham College who wanted his last name to remain anonymous, said that they showed up to raise awareness that the MP of Oshawa was “one of the people who is refusing to call for a cease-fire and therefore refusing to support Palestinians human rights.”
He said, “The only way the lack of a cease-fire would prevent that type of attack (another Hamas terrorist attack) is if the entire population of Gaza was wiped out.”
