NDP unlikely bed-mates with Conservatives on climate change?

However much you may disagree with the Liberals' head-scratching announcement this week that they will pause the carbon tax on home heating oil - a dirty, expensive method of heating, primarily used in Atlantic Canada - the solution is most definitely NOT to extend the pause to ALL forms of home heating, which would effectively sound the death knell for the Liberals' marquee climate change policy.

That is the solution being put forward by Pierre Poilievre's Conservative Party. Poilievre has made it abundantly clear that, if the Conservatives were elected, they would repeal the carbon tax anyway, completely. This, then, as they see it, is just a measure to tide them over until the election, which they see as being fought mainly on the carbon tax. It would be, though, the first nail in the carbon tax's coffin (or the second, if you think of Trudeau's move as the first).

Well, blow me down, but the New Democratic Party (NDP) is planning on supporting Poilievre's move, which boggles my mind. NDP spokesperson Peter Julian says that the NDP has to be "the adult in the room", and is willing to support Poilievre in his ambitions because this is "about affordability" (which is an NDP priority), and because this is "for once, not a crazy climate-denying motion". He claims that the motion will "make it equitable so that everybody can afford to heat their home this winter".

**Sigh** So, the NDP is willing to sacrifice the closest thing we have to a climate change plan in this country, in the interests of, what, a little bit of affordability? I understand that some people are finding it hard to pay for heating oil, and I don't downplay that, although this measure is not in itself going to make or break anyone. The NDP has legitimate concern for affordability issues, which is more than I can say for Poilievre, who is much more concerned with bringing down Justin Trudeau, any way he can.

But the NDP is also supposed to be responsible custodians of the environment. They are supposed to be "the adults in the room", remember. Support for a motion, albeit a non-binding motion, that could lead to the dismantling of the whole carbon tax venture, does not seem to me to be the action of a responsible adult. It smacks of muscle-flexing, playing politics, and sending the Liberals a finger-wagging message that they are not to be trifled with. 

It's not even the case that the high cost of heating oil in Atlantic Canada is due to the carbon tax. As a Globe opinion piece points out, out of the 75c a litre that home heating oil has increased since 2020, only 12c of that was due to the carbon tax, the rest was down to wars, OPEC machinations and all of that geopolitical stuff. So, pausing the carbon tax for "affordability" reasons is nonsense. (And anyway, an escalating carbon tax is SUPPOSED to make using high-carbon products expensive and uncomfortable, isn't it? That's the whole point of it.)

In one week, my confidence in both the Liberals (never that high) and the NDP (slightly higher) has taken a nose-dive. So, what am I left with? The Green Party - sensible, committed and reliable, but without a hope in hell of changing the electoral landscape of Canada (sad, but true). Oh, Trudeau, what have you done?