BC Carbon Tax?
In 1998, shortly after Sightline (then, Northwest Environment Watch) published Tax Shift (pdf), Gordon Campbell, then BC's opposition leader, invited me for a sit-down to discuss the book. He had read it and said he loved it. At the time, the New Democratic BC government was gearing up to do a pilot tax shift, inspired by the book. It was also about to be routed in provincial elections, to be replaced by Campbell's Liberals.
Campbell said, "In our first term, we're not going to shift taxes. We're going to lower them. But in our second term, we might." I didn't put much stock in his words.
Maybe I should have.
Imagine that.Today's Globe and Mail reports that Campbell's Finance Minister Carole Taylor is seriously considering introducing North America's first real carbon tax, paired with reduced income taxes. She calls it a "tax shift."
On Climate, Hu's Leading Whom?
On a hot day this summer, Chinese President Hu Jintao and a group of state leaders appeared at a public function wearing short-sleeved shirts, rather than their normal business suits (not pictured here). According to the state press, the casual attire wasn't just a new fashion statement: China's top brass were leading by example, encouraging Chinese workers to dress in light clothing in order to reduce the use of air conditioners in office buildings.
Fashions do change. Outright denial of global warming is out of vogue. Instead, the climate change do-nothing set is sporting this season’s new line: “Why should we bother trying to fight climate change when China won't do anything to reduce its emissions?” (Conservative communications consultant Frank Luntz even insists that the “'international fairness' issue is an emotional home run.” Emotional home run? One might ask what a win looks like in his game?)
How to counter this flawed logic? Hu Jintao’s climate-fighting wardrobe choices aside, here are three ways:
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