We now have Hansard for the first week of 2013 in the House of Commons. Each day, there is a 45-minute Question Period. You’ve seen this. It generally gets the most media attention of any daily event on the Hill.
But just before Question Period gets underway (at 2:15 pm ET M-TH and 11:15 am on Fri) there is a 15-minute period for Members’ Statements. This period is provided for under Standing Order 31 so these statements are often referred to on the Hill as “S.O. 31s.” The Conservatives mostly, but exclusively, are now using this period to bludgeon their opponents. (See my earlier post for more explanations: “The evolution of the SO31: From happy thoughts to political mud fights”) Used to be that Michael Ignatieff and the Liberals were the objects of the Conservative SO 31 ire. No more. Here’s what those of us who are paid to watch that 15-minute period of SO 31s have been suffering through for the first five days of this year in Parliament (and have every expectation of suffering through for many more days to come). I’ve excerpted just the juicy “carbon tax” bits …
Monday
Four of the nine statements delivered by Conservative MPs sounded very similar:
… the NDP whose economic plan is a $21 billion job-killing carbon tax.
Mr. Speaker, the NDP members have been busy during their six-week break from Parliament scheming to implement a job-killing $21 billion carbon tax upon the people of Canada. The NDP’s proposed carbon tax would kill jobs and raise the price of gas, groceries, electricity and everything else. While the NDP has been concentrating on implementing its carbon tax, … People can count on our government to stand up against the NDP’s job-killing $21 billion carbon tax.
Mr. Speaker, on this first sitting day of 2013, I would like to wish you and all members of this House a happy new year. As Canadians look forward to 2013 with hope and optimism, a dark cloud looms on the horizon. A new $21 billion job-killing carbon tax is still on the table for the NDP. In fact, the NDP leader has been clear on his plans to impose this massive job-killing carbon tax. … This NDP job-killing carbon tax would raise the price of everything for Canadian families, including gas, groceries and electricity … I stand firmly with my Conservative colleagues against the NDP leader’s job-killing carbon tax.… the NDP’s $21 billion carbon tax. We all know that the NDP leader is planning to generate billions through a carbon tax that would increase the price of everything for Canadian families, including gas, groceries and electricity. … We will continue to oppose the NDP leader’s $21 billion carbon tax scheme.
Tuesday
Three of nine today.
… the NDP is proposing a massive $21 billion job-killing carbon tax that would increase the cost of gas, groceries and home heating. …
… the NDP wants to impose a $21 billion job-killing carbon tax on Canadians. The NDP’s $21 billion carbon tax would have a devastating impact on Canadian families because it would raise the price of everything from gas to groceries to electricity and all other goods and services.
… the NDP solution is a new $21 billion job-killing carbon tax…. The NDP’s job-killing carbon tax will raise the price of everything from gas to groceries to electricity. He said that their solution will build a more prosperous Canada, but that is code for “the NDP’s $21 billion job-killing carbon tax will raise billions on the backs of hard-working Canadians” . . .The NDP’s job-killing carbon tax is simply bad for Canada.
Wednesday
Just 2 of 9 today on the “job-killing carbon tax”:
… the NDP is focused on implementing a $21 billion job-killing carbon tax that would ruin employment opportunities in our natural resources sector. Our government will keep fighting the NDP’s job-killing carbon tax …
… the NDP is the party that has a $21 billion carbon tax in its policy documents, in black and white, and yet its members spent the fall denying it here in the House. We will continue to expose the NDP’s $21 billion carbon tax that would raise the price of everything, including—
Thursday
…the NDP leader and his caucus and their plan for a $21 billion dangerous carbon tax that would kill jobs and hurt the economy.
Friday
2 for 9
… the leader of the NDP and his party do not share these same priorities. Their priority is a $21-billion carbon tax that would hurt the economy and hurt Canadian families. Canadians do not want to pay more for their gas, groceries, and electricity. They reject the NDP’s hidden tax scheme. When will the NDP leader come clean and admit that his $21 billion carbon tax would hurt Canada’s strong economic growth and raise the cost of all goods and services consumed by Canadians?
What the NDP leader failed to realize is that while he was calling on us to do more to help make jobs available, his cornerstone policy would kill thousands of jobs and put hardworking Canadians out of work. The NDP leader’s $21 billion job-killing carbon tax would raise the price of everything from gas to groceries to electricity. His job-killing carbon tax would stop economic growth and put so many Canadians out of work. Canadian students deserve better than the NDP leader’s $21 billion carbon tax that would kill jobs and economic growth.
No doubt, by now, dear reader, you’d like to know more about this “$21 billion carbon tax” proposed by the NDP. Of course you do. You’ll want to review this post, then — Politics of Carbon Pricing — where you may be surprised to see that the NDP proposal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in its 2011 election platform looks very much like what the Harper Conservatives themselves proposed in 2008.
Now, about those “job-killing payroll tax” hikes that the Harper Conservatives introduced last year, this year and will again next year …
What a farce. The NDP platform isn’t even a carbon tax one, it’s a cap and trade platform. Conservatives themselves ran on a cap and trade policy platform in 2008 in opposition to Stephan Dion’s proposed carbon tax and even sent then Minister of Environment Jim Prentice out to try to sell it to Alberta. Which is why they now lie about it with their fabricated, imaginary NDP carbon tax rhetoric, over and over in the hope their lies will be be repeated enough to be believed, and because they know most of the dummies that vote for them haven’t a clue of of the differences between the two platforms, anyway. It’s shameless deceit, but entirely typical of the Harper government.
So instead of reporting to Canadians on the investigation of Dean del Mastro, Andrew Penashue for election fraud offenses that are black and white, or How Pierre Poilievre and Jenni Bryne came up with the Robo call idea, or how Senator Duffy and others are ripping off tax payers, these MPs get paid to lie to Canadians day after day? By the way, the next election is in 2 years, so talking about what the NDP will do, WHEN they take power, seems a foregone conclusion according to these folks
This example of lying (and this is part of their negative branding of whatever party could challenge their hold on political power) by Steve’s party confirms that I will never vote for them. But, all they need is feed the 38% some red meat every once and awhile. With the centre and left divided amongst 3 parties, they can lie all they want and still hold power.
Hey if they keep saying this The simple minded followers will put the Reform back in power to make more wealth at the expense of the enviorment.Its just more union bashing The wealthy don’t want organized labour. They want to play one employee against another to drive down wages. Pretty easy to see the agenda with this so called news agency
Go ahead and blame the NDP, but be forewarned a carbon tax is coming. It could be in five years, ten years, 20 year; but it is on the way. The only reason Canada hasn’t gone ahead with it, is that it will put our country at a competitive disadvantage to other countries who have not yet bought in to saving the planet. Canada needs to start leading the G7 to clean up the environment. Percapita, Canada is the largest producer of garbage and has the largest consumption of clean water. We also have the oil fields as one of the top ten contributers of greenhouse gases. I think our vast swaths of land help us disguise our inadequacies, but it’s time to clean it up folks!!
The conservatives have a majority and are still years away from an election. Why do they even care about the NDP energy policy? If the Harperites want to be re-elected they should get busy and do something Canadians can reward them for, instead of attacking a policy that will come anyway regardless of who forms the government.
Great comments. Nice to see that people are aware of the truth.
What we need to do with regard to this negative stuff by the Cons. is to make sure that we vote for someone else and defeat this nonsense, and stay home.
Re: Carbon Tax, quite why so many people think that we can move to green energy and solve the whole carbon/environment issue tomorrow and without
having to pay for it, puzzles me. Either we do it now and pay what needs to be paid, or, we can pay ten times more in a decade, not only in cash, but more devastatingly with our children’s/grandchildren’s health. We have polluted the environment, now it is us who must set it right, otherwise
nature will surely make us pay.