The Nova Scotia election sends a clear message to Canadian political leaders: voters don’t want a carbon tax.
The Nova Scotia Liberals faced a historic collapse in the recent provincial election, losing more than three-quarters of their seats and falling to third place. Once a political dynasty, the party is now on the brink of irrelevance.
Even Liberal Leader Zach Churchill couldn’t hold onto his seat in Yarmouth, as voters delivered a clear rejection of the Liberals’ agenda – including their plan to impose a provincial carbon tax disguised as a “cap-and-trade” system.
Churchill’s carbon tax plan was to copy Quebec’s cap-and-trade system. This scheme adds an extra 12.5 cents per litre of gasoline, and is set to increase every year until 2030 due to the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s nasty carbon tax backstop.
Meanwhile, Premier Tim Houston and the Progressive Conservatives promised to keep fighting to scrap the federal carbon tax entirely – without sneaking in a provincial version. Voters rewarded them with one of the strongest mandates in their party’s history, handing them an even bigger majority.
These results should send shivers down the spine of New Brunswick’s newly-elected Liberal Premier Susan Holt. She won the election with a promise not to impose a carbon tax. Now she’s backing away from that winning strategy.
“No, we will not put a provincial carbon tax in place,” Holt tweeted, just under a month before New Brunswickers elected her. “[We] need a plan that recognizes NB’s geographic, economic and environmental reality.”
But just days into her term, after meeting with Trudeau, Holt flip-flopped.
“New Brunswick premier confirms her Liberal government will draft carbon pricing plan,” states the post-meeting headline from the Canadian Press.
This is despite poll numbers consistently showing Canadians are opposed to carbon taxes. Holt’s backtracking isn’t just bad policy – it’s a betrayal of the voters who trusted her.
Instead of taking orders from Trudeau and repeating Churchill’s mistakes, Holt should follow the example set by premiers across the country—regardless of political stripe.
Newfoundland and Labrador Liberal Premier Andrew Furey has been a vocal critic of the federal carbon tax.
“It’s not right for the people of the province right now,” Furey told reporters. “That’s not to say that we don’t believe in fighting climate change. We certainly do, but this policy is wrong.”
B.C. NDP Premier David Eby recently promised to scrap their provincial carbon tax if Ottawa removes the national one.
In Alberta, Conservative Premier Danielle Smith announced a new constitutional challenge to the federal carbon tax. This case challenges regulatory carve-outs that torpedo the federal government’s justification for the law that the Supreme Court of Canada upheld.
This is also the same constitutional challenge that Holt’s predecessor, former premier Blaine Higgs, announced the government would pursue if re-elected.
Instead of standing up for New Brunswickers tired of paying for Ottawa’s failed carbon tax experiment, Holt chose to pile on with a carbon tax of her own.
By embracing a provincial carbon tax, Holt is making the same blunder that doomed Churchill and the Nova Scotia Liberals. Aligning with Trudeau’s deeply unpopular policy alienates voters struggling with soaring living costs, including skyrocketing fuel and home heating prices that are driven by relentless carbon tax hikes.
Canadians have made their priorities clear: they want affordability, not more taxes. Houston’s landslide win in Nova Scotia proves it, as do polls in both Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador, where leaders who oppose the carbon tax enjoy commanding leads.
Holt still has a chance to fix this. She can scrap her carbon tax plan and instead focus on delivering meaningful tax relief that New Brunswickers desperately need. But if she ignores the warning signs, her government’s honeymoon could end faster than she thinks.
The message to Canada’s politicians is clear: carbon taxes are failing, and taxpayers are fed up.
Devin Drover is the Atlantic Director and General Counsel with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
