The global boiling climate breakdown age of fire is so serious that no price is too high to pay to stop it. Except Liberal parliamentary seats in Atlantic Canada in our gravely unserious nation.
Thus we awoke recently to snow in the backyard. No wait, to news that the federal carbon tax on home heating oil will be suspended for three years because the urgent man-made climate crisis isn’t really that serious after all. Or their magnificent policies won’t actually help anyway. Or Liberal polling numbers are looking so grim that the burning Earth must wait.
It would be tempting to assume the prime minister is being cynical, partly because many people nowadays think anyone who claims to disagree with them is a lying fraudster and partly because, from fiscal prudence to open government to abolishing first-past-the-post, his deeds have long and spectacularly failed to match the plain meaning of his words. And here he’s removing the tax on home heating oil, heavily used in the Atlantic provinces but rarely elsewhere, but not on natural gas.
Brrrr. Imagine talking that way. If you recite talking points continually the iron enters the soul, like the PR guy in “Jurassic Park” (the book) who imagines publicity headlines even as a T Rex mauls him. But any theory that Justin Trudeau secretly agrees with me on everything and is just faking it for sinister purposes does not pass the smell test. So let’s seek some explanation that avoids the rabbit hole.
Trudeau also said, “We are nothing if not a government that listens to people, that is focused on our goals and is willing to adjust as necessary.” And the Grits, despite current woes, have dominated national politics since the death of Sir John A. Macdonald largely through their capacity to be firm but flexible, balancing competing principles in electorally compelling ways.
There is an argument for being governed by rogues rather than fools if forced to choose. As Alexandre Dumas said, rogues take vacations. Also, cunning schemers who really know what’s going on might pull themselves together in an emergency. And who wants to be nibbled to death by ducks? If I must be devoured, let it be a lion. Yet the soundtrack to my pain is quacking.
Does Trudeau really consider man-made climate change an existential crisis? Absolutely. Does he really believe his policies nibbling away at Canada’s trivial GHG emissions will fix global weather by 2100? Absolutely. Does he really think pausing this one until re-elected will help him save us from ourselves? Absolutely. Is it all absurd? Absolutely.
It’s also absurd that Canada lacks functioning armed forces in a dangerous world and our politicians send DND more culture wars, not more spending. And that the government responds to exploding debt by scrambling to hire more bureaucrats. And that it frivolously gives itself harsh censorship tools, then uses them on the Freedom Convoy but not Hamas supporters. But what you see is what you get.
When I say Canada is not a serious nation I don’t mean the situation isn’t serious. Nations that neglect security on frivolous grounds get just as conquered as those who are intentionally betrayed. And the Liberals’ climate policies have done major harm to the economy and national unity while their snarling sunny ways helped poison our politics. But if our government is silly, we must face it.
Especially since we don’t have to choose rogues or fools. We could elect politicians who are serious without being sinister. If not, we’ll all have to make sacrifices, except Liberal MPs in vulnerable ridings and their jet-setting boss.
