^^^^^
This is why.
https://x.com/jkenney/status/1901758324359766222?s=46&t=o3XUPKxiqJH7KZYdWMCtqg
Carney is supposed to be this strait laced competent guy. He’s making it easy for the Conservatives to brand him as incompetent and dishonest.
Carney is referring to developing more trade with Europe - which has a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. If Canada doesn’t levy it, the EU does.
This isn’t the winning issue that Poilievre thinks it is. The simple fact of the matter is the average Canadian voter thinks we need a climate change policy, but doesn’t what to pay for it every time they pump gas. ‘Polluters pay’ does well with the electorate until they realize they are polluters too.
Kenney is just being dishonest with the second post. Just go read the agreement with Europe. Carbon pricing is covered, but wasn’t an issue with the carbon tax (and would not be with an emissions trading system either, and the carbon price doesn’t have to be the same)
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Trade with the EU is a fraction of our trade with the US and always will be. Imposing taxes on companies already being taxed with tariffs just makes our goods even more uncompetitive. And of course, it’s not necessary for Asia.
Having a trade relationship with a United States that has no climate change policy is going to make carbon pricing in Canada incredibly problematic - that has been the elephant in the room since the Bush Administration walked away from Kyoto. But as an attack vector, being a) dishonest and b) talking up trade with the United States at a time when it is under attack from the White House, it is probably not the most effective campaign tactic.
Poilievre needs to rethink his Trump strategy, and make sure it doesn’t knock him off what has been his focus - at a superficial level, Justin Trudeau, but in terms of the underlying problems, they were pocketbook issues. To win, he needs to find a way to get back to that without seeming like a lapdog. The ‘Just like Justin’ is puerile and is just irritating voters - hence the absolute freefall he is in in the polls. The 338 model has the Liberals winning for the first time in at least two years, I suspect longer.
Standing up to fight for the poor oppressed multinational oil corporations isn’t going to get the job done. Yet another hammer blow poll, Angus Reid today has the Liberals up 5 and starting to walk away from the Cons in Ontario and Quebec.
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I thought this was a more effective line of attack from Poilievre
But the missing element is what to do about it. That is where I think the Conservatives actually have to set out their case, including the aspect of trade with the US. I am not sure they really have one, the bench strength of 20 years ago just isn’t there and I don’t think tax cuts are the answer (either economically or politically). In economic terms, they might be part of the answer, but someone needs to get serious about productivity growth.
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This is another way of looking at it. Europe in its entirety is 7.4% of our exports, not even 1/10th of our exports to the US.
I’m all for looking at new markets. The more markets we sign trade agreements, the better. But to impose a tax on our own goods to attempt to enter markets that account for 8% of our sales at the expense of our markets that account for 80% of our markets is insane. Carbon taxes on imports are no different than tariffs on imports. It has the same effect. So we are going to be putting a tax on exports to the US alongside the taxes they are putting on us. That’s nuts.
This is what I mean about Carney coming across as incompetent and dishonest. For instance
- carbon taxes on big polluters aren’t paid for by consumers when he said “when do you buy steel?” Or on “big oil?” That will just get passed on to consumers. It’s just hidden.
- On the carbon taxes to enter the EU, that can be done at the point of entry instead of the source. Then only exports to the EU are effected and exports to the US are not. Carney KNOWS this. But he’s lying to Canadians because he can’t let go of this net zero fantasy. And it is a fantasy.
- When he says most American semiconductors come in from Canada. I didn’t realize that 0.8% was “most.”
- When he said that he has nothing to do with Brookfield moving its HQ to NYC. He was chairman and voted for it.
- Did you see him get snippy today about his assets being in a blind trust? Tell us what you own!
People don’t know Mark Carney, that’s one reason why he’s rising in the polls. He’s a smart man but a bad liar.
Most Canadians oppose the carbon tax. That’s why Carney said he’d repeal it.
But most Canadians also believe that carbon taxes on big businesses will be passed on to them. And they are correct.
I have always been of the belief that climate change policy is a waste of time without China and India behaving.
Neither of which will do anything while they so far below the West’s emissions on a per capita basis. I find a lot of the UN process infuriating, but the basic idea has to involve more and earlier action by the rich economies that produce so much more per person. In Canada, we are among the very worst - which is amazing when you consider how much clean energy we actually have.
I don’t see how that gets resolved when the richest of the high emissions per capita club is not willing do anything at all, which is going to be the case for the next four years. We will be backsliding one way or another under the next government, but I don’t see any way of avoiding that.
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Just curious, was it a Trudeau issue or a party issue? Canadians just pissed off with Trudeau or the party generally? Makes a lot of difference right on how Carney gets accepted?
It’s Trudeau
Must be a great fall from grace then. I remembered when became PM, even for someone in Singapore, I saw how well he spoke and presented himself and at such a young age, gave alot of confidence to the future of Canada. Unfortunate. Hope the next government can inspire again
He looked younger than he was and it’s called private school polish. You have to account for how he grew up.
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True. I mean even now he don’t look 53. And at 43, to be PM of what is one of the world’s biggest economy is a great challenge which would inspire alot of people. At least that is what I thought back then.
Carney put his assets in a blind trust. I have a theory about that.
As head of Brookfield, he will have made investments in its funds. These funds are structured as offshore entities designed to avoid taxes. This is not uncommon. We do the same thing. But it’s a bad look if you are leading a party that advocates fairness for all Canadians but are taking advantage of offshore tax havens to avoid paying taxes. And he will almost certainly have offshore entities in his own name to invest in the Brookfield funds that will run through places like the Caymans and Panama, which will invite a lot of uncomfortable questions.
I don’t know why the Conservatives aren’t going after him on this. They are going after him as head of Brookfield for building pipelines in other countries but opposing pipelines being built in Canada. Maybe the tax issue is too complicated.
For $4M worth of Brookfield shares? Maybe, but I doubt it. They are going after him to disclose his holdings prior to putting them into a blind trust, however that isn’t a requirement of the rules and has not been demanded from previous PMs. Carney has also avoided Ignatieff’s silly mistake by renouncing his British and Irish citizenships.
I think the other reason the Conservatives need to be careful on it is that Poilievre cannot push particularly hard on it without reminding people that he has bizarrely refused to get a security clearance.
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Yet another poll showing the collapse of the Conservative lead - Leger released this morning. Leger is arguably the most well-respected polling firm at the national level. Their March 1 had the Cons at 43, Libs at 30. March 9 they were at 37-37. March 15 data shows Cons at 39, Liberals at 42. The NDP vote in particular is collapsing.
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I’m not talking about his shares. I’m talking about what are known as General Partnership interests. These are partnerships set up offshore by funds used to buy private assets.
Brookfield is the General Partner of the fund partnership in real estate, infrastructure and other markets. They take in outside capital mainly from institutional investors like OPPIB or Ontario Teachers. The outside capital is known as limited partners. Most of the capital comes from limited partners. The partnership then buys assets like ports, pipelines, solar farms, etc.
In the Limited Partnership Agreement, which is typically the governing legal document of the funds, the General Partner is typically required to put up their own capital to invest in the fund. I would be absolutely shocked if Mark Carney had not invested in GP interests in Brookfield funds. He will almost certainly own partnership interests in tax free offshore accounts.