There’s a mounting consensus among a growing majority of Canadians, regardless of political affiliations, that the carbon tax should be suspended right away.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation commissioned the polling firm Leger to conduct a survey asking Canadians if they would like to see the federal government suspend the carbon tax immediately. Pollsters discovered that 64% of Canadians agreed that it was time for the carbon tax to be suspended.
The survey inquired whether those polled supported, opposed or were unsure about suspending the carbon tax.
While the bulk of respondents would support a, 19% said they would oppose and another cohort of 19% answered that they were unsure.
Among those who were decided on the issue, 77% of Canadians were in support of the government immediately suspending the carbon tax across all demographics, such as age, gender and region.
“The poll results are crystal clear: the vast majority of Canadians want the government to immediately suspend the carbon tax,” said CTF federal director Franco Terrazzano. “Canadians shouldn’t have to pay the carbon tax on one more home heating bill or one more trip to the gas station.”
When it comes to respondent’s political stripes, Conservatives were the most likely to support suspending the carbon tax at 89%, followed by Liberals at 67%.
The majority of NDP, Bloc Quebecois and Green Party voters all supported the tax being suspended as well at 65%, 64% and 68%, respectively.
“Axing” the carbon tax outright has been a longstanding party slogan for the Conservatives for the past several years, but their pledge has been echoed by Liberal leadership candidates as of late.
“The Conservatives say they will scrap the carbon tax and even Liberals are talking about scrapping the carbon tax, so if the next prime minister is getting rid of it, there’s no reason for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to punish Canadians with one more carbon tax bill,” Terrazzano said. “The government must do the right thing and scrap the carbon tax now.”
Leadership hopeful Chrystia Freeland said she would end the consumer portion of the carbon tax if elected, despite increasing it several times during her tenure as Minister of Finance and boasting about such policies in the House of Commons as recently as last fall.
As for Liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney, he has yet to publicly say where he stands on the matter. However, the Toronto Star reported that Carney “has been telling Liberal MPs in private conversations that he will repeal the consumer price.”
However, despite the change in tune from the Liberal side of the political aisle, the majority of Canadians remain unconvinced that a new Liberal leader will eliminate the consumer carbon tax.
According to a separate Leger poll released Wednesday, 51% of Canadians are not confident that Liberal candidates will live up to their word and eliminate the carbon tax. Meanwhile, only 36% believe they will.
