PC leadership hopefuls vow to axe carbon tax, despite risk to platform

When Patrick Brown announced to a Conservative convention that his first election platform as Ontario leader would include a tax on carbon emissions, there were literally groans from the audience.

Introducing a new tax, especially one tied to a liberal cause like climate change, is akin to drowning puppies for some Tories.

Almost two years later, all three candidates running to replace Brown have indicated they will abandon the pledge, citing grassroots opposition within their party.

But none has said exactly how the Conservatives’ “People’s Guarantee” platform can survive without the levy, projected to bring in $ 4 billion over its first four years. It was expected to at least partly pay for a 22-percent “middle-class” tax cut, a mental health-care program and other pricey planks, but would still leave a deficit in the first year.

And then there is another inconvenient fact: the federal government has said it will impose a “carbon-pricing” initiative on any province that doesn’t introduce its own this year.

“There is going to be a carbon tax, no matter what. The question is whether it’s going to be a federal carbon tax or provincial carbon tax,” said Chris Cochrane, a University of Toronto political scientist.

“Even if you’re opposed to a carbon tax, you presumably want it administered at the provincial level, so you can wind it down eventually if there’s an opportunity.”

As for the effect on the platform itself, a former adviser of Brown’s, now on candidate Caroline Mulroney’s campaign team, offered a succinct verdict five days ago.

“If you drop the carbon tax, there is no ‘ rest of the platform.’ No middle- class tax cut, no childcare refund, no mental health investment, no dental care for lowincome seniors,” Dan Robertson said on Twitter.

And, he noted, “from a purely practical POV, there is not enough time to write, cost, design, produce and approve a new platform before the election. Considering that poor platforms have been the downfall of past PCPO elxns, do we really want to take the risk of rushing out a new one?”

Brown proposed the carbon tax — a levy on emissions above set levels — as an alternative to the Wynne Liberal government’s cap- andtrade plan, where polluters can either cut emissions or buy credits in Ontario, Quebec or California. And he said the revenue would be passed on to Ontarians in tax breaks.

But signs of pushback have been apparent since that convention in March 2016. One Conservative activist, Jim Karahalios, even started an “Axe the carbon tax” movement, only to later be expelled from the party.

Doug Ford, the Toronto businessman and brother of late mayor Rob Ford, has vowed early and often that he’ll have no part of the levy.

His two leadership rivals were less definitive at first, but on Thursday slipped off the fence. Lawyer Mulroney said she will “not support it,” and ex- cabinet minister Christine Elliott revealed in a radio interview she “would not be proceeding” with the policy. Elliott said she had surveyed 1,500 members and found they were “overwhelmingly” against it.

All three have voiced varying degrees of backing for the remainder of People’s Guarantee, though the detailed version of the platform, including the now-questionable costing, is nowhere to be found online.

Meanwhile, opposing the measure to win leadership votes might backfire in the June 7 election, tainting the new PC chief with an image of political expediency, argued Wayne Petrozzi, a political scientist at Ryerson.

“The party is risking a great deal in this process,” he said.

“This may yet be another example of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.”