November 2024
“…we’ve learned in the House of Commons, if you repeat it, if you say it louder, if that is your talking point, people will totally believe it.” Then-Environment Minister Catherine McKenna, in May 2019.
Re: “Tax Alternative” (Letters to the Editor, Toronto Sun, 4 November 2024): The letter writer laments that young Canadians are facing a mental health crisis because of the “Climate Crisis” and the fact that Pierre Poilievre has no plan to tax carbon dioxide, which the “Climate Crisis” crowd deceptively call “pollution.”
Carbon Dioxide a naturally occurring gas that is essential to all life on earth; it’s essential for photosynthesis. The more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the greener the planet literally is, not just figuratively. Experts like Greenpeace co-founder Dr. Patrick Moore, who is an ecologist, argue that the Earth is actually carbon deficient presently.
We’ve been dealing with global warming/climate change for decades. It’s nothing new. In one of the geography classes that I took in high school, my teacher distributed a handout containing a semi-satirical story relating to the issue of global warming. This was in 1985 or 1986. I can’t remember the entire text of the story, but I remember the subtitle went something like: While the southern U.S. burns, farmers in southern Ontario are making a killing on avocados.
We shouldn’t be careless with our environment, but the world’s climate is constantly changing, and we are pretty arrogant if we think we can control it. The best that we can do is be good environmental stewards and adapt to any of the changes to our world-wide climate, the same ones that have been occurring naturally for millions of years and have yet to cause the planet to burst into flames.
It should be pointed out that there are trees entombed in the Arctic Permafrost, meaning the Arctic was once warm enough for tree growth. Maybe one day, there may be a booming lumber industry in the Arctic, along with avocado farms in southern Ontario.
Lastly, I have always wondered why Canada never gets any credit for all we have done to reduce the levels of pollution in emissions as a result of our modern, industrialized society. What comes out of the tailpipes of cars and the smokestacks of factories is cleaner than ever before and getting better through technological innovations. Ontario’s Drive Clean program was so successful in getting older, polluting vehicles off the road, that it was eliminated.
Canada has done a good job of cleaning up our environment, all without taxing an essential element that is falsely called a pollutant by alarmists. Maybe young Canadians wouldn’t be “reporting significant distress” if we stopped bombarding them with the relentless doomsday alarmism.
TAX ALTERNATIVE
Re “Questions for a carbon tax election” (Oct. 29): I have a question. What’s the plan, Pierre? Poilievre has repeatedly stated his intention to do away with Canada’s pollution pricing policy if the Conservative Party forms government, but has not said what he plans to do instead to fight climate change. Meanwhile, a groundbreaking new study published in The Lancet has revealed that climate change is fueling a mental health crisis among young people, with 85% of nearly 16,000 respondents reporting significant distress. Young Canadians — some of whom will be voting for the first time in the next federal election — might be interested to know whether Poilievre’s cry of “Axe the Tax” is accompanied by any viable alternatives.
Mary Blake Rose
London, Ont.
(Imagine their levels of distress when they cannot afford to buy a home, pay their rent, choose between eating and heating and the myriad of other problems that come with unreasonable taxation of citizens)
