The nose count couldn’t be clearer.
We don’t want what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is serving up April Fools’ Day.
Yes, another hike in Trudeau’s carbon tax.
It will not be the last one and there will be no one around to say they were just foolin’ with us.
The number crunchers at the Angus Reid Institute spell out what most of us feel.
But, in these trying times, where most people are at doesn’t matter.
Those paying the bills the politicians rack up are there to pay the bills the politicians rack up.
Politics is being dominated by the dreamers and the schemers and the political players, the ideologues and the idiots, the crusaders and the cons and those wheelers and dealers who get into power thinking they are far smarter than the rest of us.
For what it’s worth, four in 10 Canadians want the carbon tax axed. A little more than one in 10 want it lowered. So that’s a majority right there.
Then there are those who just don’t want the tax to go up. This is the simple concession Premier Danielle Smith asked from the Trudeau government.
Don’t increase the tax April 1.
That’s another one in four Canadians.
So you’re probably wondering. How many who were counted want the carbon tax hike to go ahead as planned?
In other words, how many agree with what Trudeau is doing?
Just 22%. A smidgen more than one in five.
And yet the tax increase goes ahead and what the majority desires amounts to the square root of squat.
By the way, in Alberta six in 10 want the tax axed now and another one in 10 want the tax lowered.
There is more ugly arithmetic dismissed by Trudeau and his minions.
There are those who believe they pay more in carbon tax than they get back in rebates.
They are a much larger group than those buying the Trudeau line they’re getting more back in rebates than they pay out in carbon tax.
The majority also think cost of living concerns should come first over fighting climate change.
Most feel the carbon tax makes life more expensive.
Most think the carbon tax is not effective in fighting climate change.
On Thursday, Premier Smith appears before a committee of federal politicians.
She and some other premiers wanted to meet with a Liberal-led federal group of politicians from all parties and you knew that snowball had no chance in hell.
Trudeau had already said premiers like Smith were not telling the truth. He insisted the carbon tax is a good deal.
Trudeau said it was basic math. Must be some kind of new math.
The prime minister obviously still believes he can somehow carry the day. He appears to be in a fighting mood.
Anyway, Kelly McCauley, a no-nonsense Edmonton Conservative member of parliament heads up another committee of Liberal, Conservative, Bloc and NDP members of parliament and … presto … Smith was on the agenda Thursday.
The committee’s Liberals howled and raised objection after objection over how premiers like Smith and New Brunswick’s Blaine Higgs ended up getting to speak.
It was like how they bellowed and bellyached the day before when Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe made an appearance.
On this day, Smith said the ever-increasing carbon tax is “immoral” and “inhumane.”
“It’s a weight Canadians can’t bear. Canadians don’t want it.”
Where Albertans would be out more than $900 a year with this tax increase even after a carbon tax rebate it wouldn’t be long before they’d be out $2,700.
“How far will the federal government go to make life even more difficult and expensive?”
How far? Far.
Smith said the Trudeau government takes a dollar, gives back 75 cents and tells you it’s a good deal “thinking people aren’t going to notice they took the dollar in the first place.”
Liberal politicians challenged Smith on the Alberta government taking the full 13 cents of the province’s fuel tax on April 1.
Smith says if the oil price stays high then four cents will be taken off the tax.
If the oil price goes even higher, the tax will be taken off completely.
If Trudeau would take off the carbon tax completely when oil prices were high Smith said she’d be delighted.
Higgs, the New Brunswick premier, sounded ever the optimist.
“At some point you’d like to think there would be an ear to hear this,” said Higgs, of the pushback against the carbon tax.
When Trudeau was in Calgary earlier this month your scribbler pointed out to him a lot of people just weren’t buying his line on the carbon tax.
The prime minister said his job was not to be popular though he added it helped.
Not to be popular. He’s doing that job well.
rbell@postmedia.com
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