BC's Carbon Tax

As a former British Columbian myself and still a card carrying member of the BC Liberals (mine expires in 2009, however I will renew it if I ever return to British Columbia) I obviously take a great interest in what is happening. As someone who is both pro free market, but concerned about the environment, I believe BC's solution is the best of both worlds. This does not involve higher taxes overall or more regulation, but it gives British Columbians a strong incentive to reduce pollution and GHGs. By rewarding those who cut emissions and punishing those who increase them, this works in many ways like the market where higher prices cause people to buy less and lower prices cause people to buy more. Pollution is in economics what we call an externality, but since it is not priced, an optimal amount is not reached, but rather we have too much. What a carbon tax does, is it puts a price on pollution and then lets the market take care of the rest. This is the first in Canada and I hope others follow soon, although I don't count on Alberta following anytime soon and neither do I count on the federal government following suit as long as the Tories are in charge. However, much as California has been the leader on many issues in the United States, I believe British Columbia can be the same within Canada and on the environment it is. While most applaud this and indeed this will make it even more likely that in 2009 the BC Liberals will increase their seat count, there are some hard core conservatives who feel Campbell has abandoned them. I never really bought the idea he was a conservative ideologue and most close to him would argue he is actually more middle of the road than many think. Rather he is a premier that wants to see British Columbia succeed in all areas and will do what it takes to do so. In 2001, when he became premier, we had a large deficit and high taxes that were driving business away. He reduced taxes and cut spending in order to get our fiscal house in order and once again make BC an attractive place to do business. While he may have adopted many policies the Conservative ideologues liked such as tax cuts, privatization, spending cuts, and battles with public sector unions, his reasoning was he did what was necessary to turn BC around, whereas the conservative ideologues would support these policies whether they were appropriate for the time or not appropriate. In addition, Campbell has avoided federal bashing unlike most other premiers and past ones in British Columbia and this has paid off in terms of what BC has gotten. Although, it would be better if the federal government showed leadership, inaction at the federal level should not condemn the provinces to inaction. While attacking the federal government over their lack of action may be good politics, it will do little to deal with climate change. I am pleased with BC's leadership and would happily support anyone who showed similiar resolve at the federal level whatever party they ran on. Since Dion is still new and unknown, hopefully he can show similiar leadership on the environment (on the economy and taxes, Chretien and Martin took care of this). When it comes to the environment, it does not have to necessarily be a left vs. right thing. In fact the leaders in both Canada (Gordon Campbell) and United States (Arnold Schwartznegger) are both centre-right, they just are not ideologues who oppose doing anything about the environment because it goes against their ideology.

Here in Ontario, John Tory got 67% in a leadership review. Although I would have supported Tory for leader in 2004, I would have also voted in favour of having him step down as leader. I generally believe in giving leaders two shots as most don't succeed on their first try, but the fact he won fewer votes and fewer seats (if you include the re-distributed results) than Ernie Eves did in 2003, which was a bad result for the Ontario PCs, he clearly needs to go. Dalton McGuinty isn't widely hated, but isn't widely loved either so his ability to be re-elected or not depended heavily on his opponent and since his opponent ran a disastrous campaign, he would won handily. This is also not the first time Tory has shown bad political judgement, he showed the same thing when he managed Kim Campbell's disastrous 1993 campaign. The Ontario PCs needs someone who is as moderate as John Tory, but has better political judgement. If I had to suggest who I think would be the best choice, my choice would be Elizabeth Witmer who fits both of those criterias.