Carbon tax wisdom
Tom Courchene, one of approximately a dozen people in Canada who actually understands the equalization program....
Wait. That's no way to get anyone to read this blog. Let's start that again.
Tom Courchene, of Queen's University, has now turned his attention to the big issue of the day -- no, not Julie Couillard, but the carbon tax. (Okay, I'm really sorry -- this post has nothing in it about bikers or mattress microphones.)
Courchene is a fan of the carbon tax and spoke today in Ottawa about the wisdom of it.
It was an elaboration on an article he wrote recently in the respected Policy Options magazine.
His main message appears to be that the environment is emerging as the big federal-provincial issue of tomorrow -- eclipsing those old debates about equalization and, going farther back, the constitution. It may even eclipse health care -- the big topic of fed-prov wrangling several years ago.
"Environmental federalism," Courchene calls this new era. Certainly yesterday's joint agreement by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Quebec Premier Jean Charest would give some credence to this prediction by Courchene.
After the lunch, Courchene reportedly went and had a little chat with Liberal leader Stéphane Dion, who's also recently become a convert to the carbon-tax idea -- much to the consternation of some partisans who believe the Conservatives will use the idea to paint Liberals as tax-and-spenders.
Courchene's policy paper is a stiff read - but the principles are pretty clear - and could be packaged very attractively for the consumption of the Canadian Public.
I don't see Harper and Baird doing that though....
Maybe Dion and David McGuinty - but not the current PM and his Environment minister...
Could be the BIG divider in any upcoming election.
Trouble is - though it makes beautiful sense - getting China, India, and especially the US (even under a new regime) to buy in and quickly sign a treaty maybe an uphill struggle...
But that is what politics (and diplomacy) is all about, isn't it?
Posted by: Wascally wabbit | June 04, 2008 at 01:05 PM