Climate should be top priority
Dear Editor:
A contributor has recently challenged the facts presented by me in a previous letter, so I wish to respond.
Pierre Poilievre, when directly questioned about his plan for emissions and climate change, stated “Our election platform will deal with all these issues”. He further will not commit to the Paris Accord emissions targets.
With the Conservative leader’s attempt to suspend the carbon tax, it is therefore easy to assume that climate change is not a priority to him and the Conservative party has, as yet, no plan to combat climate change -- which I believe should be the top priority of governments.
It can be attributed to either misinformation or disinformation to state that it is “not true” that contributors in eight provinces (the ones participating in the federal plan) will receive more than they contribute. This is a fact -- and has been confirmed on numerous occasions by the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO). I don’t believe that people really care that the overall impact on the economy “might” end up costing more. A typical comment from the well-to-do is “Why penalize the wealthy”?
Why, indeed? Most wealthy people do not work hard all their lives to accumulate wealth. For the most part it is either inherited or by having well-paying jobs that leave money for investment. This is not the average Canadian.
With automation and AI, the job-availability has gradually been reduced -- rather quickly in the past few years. So, who is getting rich at the expense of those who are losing their jobs?
That’s right -- the rich get richer because they have money to invest in firms that use advanced automation and AI. They make money on the backs of labourers -so they rightly should have to reimburse, to some extent, the people that they have made jobless. That is why I support increased wealth taxes, increased corporate taxes, and increased inheritance taxes.
“Pierre Poilievre will fix everything.” LOL. Pierre Poilievre will continue to cater to the corporations and the wealthy and will continue to fool people into believing that he cares about the working people of this country. Just review his record when it comes to unionized workers -- the backbone of our economy, along with small businesses.
Patrick MacDonald
Kelowna