OpinionLetters
Tuesday, Jan. 28: Premier Doug Ford’s causes for an early Ontario election are flimsy, says one reader. You possibly can write to us too, at [email protected]
Revealed Jan 28, 2025 • Final up to date 20 hours in the past • 3 minute learn
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Premier Doug Ford says he wants a contemporary mandate to assist shield Ontario in opposition to Donald Trump’s tariffs. Picture by Justin Tang /THE CANADIAN PRESS
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Ford by no means requested us our opinion earlier than
Re: Premier Doug Ford confirms he’ll name snap Ontario election subsequent week, Jan. 24.
The choice to name an early election is being characterised by our premier as essential to acquire a “clear mandate” to take care of the specter of tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump. Apparently, the spending that might be wanted to blunt tariffs’ results won’t get the full-throated assist of the opposition events — thus the necessity to put it to the voters.
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Unique articles from Elizabeth Payne, David Pugliese, Andrew Duffy, Bruce Deachman and others. Plus, meals evaluations and occasion listings within the weekly publication, Ottawa, Out of Workplace.Limitless on-line entry to Ontario Chronicle and 15 information websites with one account. Ontario Chronicle ePaper, an digital reproduction of the print version to view on any gadget, share and touch upon.Day by day puzzles, together with the New York Instances Crossword.Help native journalism.
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Unique articles from Elizabeth Payne, David Pugliese, Andrew Duffy, Bruce Deachman and others. Plus, meals evaluations and occasion listings within the weekly publication, Ottawa, Out of Workplace.Limitless on-line entry to Ontario Chronicle and 15 information websites with one account. Ontario Chronicle ePaper, an digital reproduction of the print version to view on any gadget, share and touch upon.Day by day puzzles, together with the New York Instances Crossword.Help native journalism.
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The place was this perception in democratic legitimacy for the previous half-decade? Premier Doug Ford didn’t really feel the necessity for a mandate — nonetheless loosely outlined — to repeatedly invoke the However Clause; dismantle our cap and commerce system; slash the dimensions of Toronto’s metropolis council throughout an election interval; carve up the Greenbelt; or blow tons of of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to cancel inexperienced power contracts and put beer in nook shops forward of schedule.
Elections are sometimes about a number of points (certainly, this election might extra plausibly be a referendum on the federal government’s failure to sort out housing affordability or the health-care disaster), and except Ford uncharacteristically gives a really clear platform on which to base our vote this time, the concept he could have a mandate, not to mention a transparent one, is farcical. As a substitute, if the Conservatives win one other majority, it can probably be on equally shaky floor as their present one, obtained through a plurality of the vote from an anemic portion of the eligible voters.
As an apart, if Trump decides to enact tariffs on Feb. 1, it is going to be throughout a caretaker interval caused by this election name, hardly giving our province steady management able to responding rapidly.
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I hope Ontario’s voters acknowledge on this name for an early election the cynicism and lack of respect for the general public that animates it. Whereas Ontario’s opposition events don’t precisely provide a beautiful various in the mean time, maybe voters will give native Conservative candidates (if they really make themselves accessible throughout the marketing campaign this time) an earful about how wasteful and pointless this course of is.
Matthew Ayling, Almonte
Why carbon pricing hasn’t labored out
Re: Minister wavers on carbon tax; Guilbault, tax’s staunchest defender, says it might be changed, Jan 30.
Federal Setting Minister Steven Guilbault is correct: the carbon tax on retail gross sales to customers might be changed. The truth is, the federal carbon tax mustn’t have been launched in 2018. By then, the proof from British Columbia demonstrated that simplistic financial pondering had failed.
B.C. was the primary province to introduce a carbon tax on gasoline, in 2008. Statistics Canada stories the annual gross sales of gasoline by province. Gross sales of gasoline in B.C. have traced a course that hit a peak in 2017, 10 per cent larger than in 2008. The one occasion that induced a decline in gross sales was the arrival of the COVID pandemic. However in 2021, gross sales went again up, nearly to the extent in 2019.
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Parliament relies upon closely on elementary financial pondering. It doesn’t perceive that such pondering doesn’t at all times work.
With retail gasoline there are two elements. The association from the get-go was to refund to taxpayers the approximate price of the tax on the pump and the fuel meter. Why would a rational citizen pay a lot consideration to a nominal tax that’s refunded? Oh, sure, I suppose that the refund might be used to purchase one thing else. And politically, the refunds could make the federal government look good to some voters.
The second issue is value elasticity. Retailers who promote perishible meals and girls’s fashions perceive this. Grocers scale back the worth of a decaying lettuce to influence clients to purchase it earlier than it turns into unsellable. Identical with girls’s fashions in the direction of the tip of a season. Our authorities doesn’t perceive.
The value elasticity of retail gasoline is -0.02 based on the USA Power Info Administration. Meaning customers pay nearly no consideration to cost; they could complain when the worth goes up, however they don’t scale back their purchases. The identical applies to fossil fuel used to warmth homes and water. These are important purchases within the eyes of the purchasers.
A carbon tax on retail gross sales doesn’t work. There are lots of efficient actions that the federal government has taken. An instance is monetary assist to foster the acquisition of electrical autos. So, let’s empty the trash can and get on with measures that work.
John G. Hollins, Gloucester
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