Canada is recognized as a world leader in the way we prudently manage our economy for the benefit of all our citizens. There is no on-the-job training for such an important task as managing a G7 economy. Now is not the time to be experimenting with extremist policies derived from some discredited ideology that has proven to be a failure in other countries.
Do not be fooled by the Toronto Liberal Party saying they are looking into, with their Ottawa cousins, a new carbon tax. Ontarians have been paying a provincial carbon tax for years on their electricity bills. Hidden by calling it something else, the provincial green energy act, and the carbon tax it levies on electricity bills, has been a disaster. High electricity rates have led to the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs, and it has led to energy poverty among seniors and anyone on a fixed income.
While North American vehicle production hit its highest level in a decade last year, Ontario missed out on the recovery, thanks to high electricity prices. Output at assembly plants in Canada fell 3 per cent, compared with increases of 7 per cent at U.S. plants and 2 per cent at factories in Mexico, pushing Canada’s share of North American vehicle production to its lowest level since 1987.
The federal Liberal leader was asked what he thought was the most pressing issue for Ontario. Told what to say by his Toronto advisor, he replied “transitioning away from manufacturing-based employment as a driver in the economy.”
Clearly, the 3rd party leader is out of touch to the current state of Ontario’s manufacturing sector, out of control electricity prices and, worse, the number of hard-working families who depend on manufacturing for their livelihood. Instead of defending jobs, he would rather defend his party in Toronto, and the wrong-headed policies that have turned Ontario into a have-not province.
In 2012, when the 3rd party leader’s principal advisor was asked about the Northern Gateway Pipeline. His answer was blunt: “Truth be told, we don’t think there ought to be a carbon-based energy industry by the middle of this century… The real alternative is not an alternative route, it’s an alternative economy.”
Canada is the second-largest, and one of the coldest countries in the world. The Opposition believes we should simply stop using oil or gas, and rely on expensive, unproven, experimental technology to heat our homes and move around. They have no plan, except a hidden agenda to charge a carbon tax on everything, regardless of the harm it does to the Canadian economy and the jobs of working Canadians.