Friday January 31, 2025 | NATIONAL NEWS (from VICTORIA, BC)
Political news by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
With Canada under attack, its time to come together with a plan that everyone can get behind, said Liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney today during a media availability in Halifax this morning.
He was addressing media in Halifax as another of the six Liberal leadership candidates — Jaime Battiste — has put his vote behind Carney. Whoever wins the Liberal leadership race becomes Canada’s next prime minister on March 9.
Carney says that “he’s not a politician’ but that he’s “becoming a politician”. Indeed, these are great lines for the Liberal leadership campaign trail and beyond:
“Earn the right to impact the future.”
“We can own this. This is ur time. We need to leapfrog the United States but they will come around eventually.”
Tax revenue is a “precious resource”.
Carbon tax:
If Carney wins as Liberal leader, he will “immediately remove the consumer carbon tax”
“But we won’t stop there,” he said today, with 38 days left in his leadership campaign.
“We’ll create a system of incentives to reward Canadians for making greener choice,” said Carney. That would be for small and medium size business as well as households.
Incentives for household would include electric vehicle, energy-efficient appliance and home insulation. “You will be rewarded and we will get the big polluters to pay for it,” said Carney.
Without throwing Trudeau under the bus, Carney says he is proposing “a better solution built off of what was there before”.
“We’re able to do more than one thing at a time” was Carney’s reference to the simplicity of the Conservative ‘axe the tax’ approach by Poilievre.
Pushes back on Poilievre:
Cutting the carbon tax — as proposed by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre — would create two problems:
- Canada’s carbon emissions would not reduce as rapidly as before
- Most Canadian households would be worse off because of the end of the income-tested rebate.
“Poilievre doesn’t care about either problem. He doesn’t really believe in climate change or that Canada should be a free rider on a massive global problem for other countries to solve<‘ said Carney today.
“He doesn’t realize how important that money in the rebate is to hard-working people across the country,” said Carney.
“It has become very divisive for Canadians,” said Carney, going further to say that Poilievre has highlighted “the negative impacts without realizing the positive impact of the rebate”.
Poilievre’s Conservative approach has “been fed by misinformation and lies from the leader of the opposition”, said Carney today.
Economic strategy during tariff war:
Carney sees the challenge of pending US tariffs on Canadians exports as an opportunity.
He says that “fair competition for our companies” will include penalizing high-polluting foreign imports.
Carney’s plan would support “jobs here, prevents carbon leakage, and aligns Canada with countries still in the fight against climate change”.
To build Canada’s competitiveness, Carney feels it’s important for Canada to become “a clean energy superpower” while making the most of existing oil and gas resources during the transition.
Canada now has “an opportunity to leapfrog the US while they turn inward and attempt to turn aback the clock”, he declared.
We have an opportunity to reinforce the strength of our economy, including working better as one economy, said Carney, as a reference to cross-border trade across provinces and territories within Canada.
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NEWS SECTIONS: LIBERAL PARTY OF CANADA | POLITICS | CANADA-USA