The Carbon Tax was a major part of Trudeau’s downfall near the end of his term. Why did he have such a hard-on for the Carbon Tax? Why didn’t he cancel it when he had a chance and maybe salvage his political career? Why did Carney scrap it on his first day?
*Full-Disclosure, I never had a problem with it. I received way more in the quarterly rebate than the tax ever could take. But it was clear it wasn’t helping his popularity. *
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I think it also would have made him look weak. It would be seen as capitulating to Poilievre. It wouldn’t have won anyone over.
But Carney didn’t have that optics problem.
I’m just an American that lives here, but I think he knew he was past his best by date in the eye of the public. The best thing to do was to take as much heat as possible on the way out. It was better for the party to let his successor take credit for publicly appeasing decisions. Poilevre is a snake oil salesman, and his snake oil was “Trudeau is the problem” and “Axe the Tax”. Trudeau eliminated himself and let his successor take credit for axing the tax. Just good politics.
A few theories
a) he didn’t want to be the one to kill his own baby.
b) people didn’t like Trudeau as it was, so him scraping it wouldn’t have meant as much as having his successor scrap it. Now Carney gets a boost from getting the credit and it helps the Liberal Party’s chances in the upcoming election ‘cause Carney can now distinguish himself from his unpopular predecessor.
I’m not sure how intentional b) is, but I think it will work. Plus, I believe what replaces it will not actually be better, just less transparent and not be in people’s faces. Killing the tax and introducing a new non-consumer facing tax would get torn to shreds with Trudeau doing it.
Im honestly wondering if it was so they could pull the whole rug out from under PP. Swap Trudeau and the Drop the tax and he had nothing left. Maybe thats giving them too much credit.
