OTTAWA—Accusations of tax grabs and lies flew in Canada's Parliament Monday as the governing Conservatives engaged in early battle with the main opposition Liberal Party over Liberal plans for a carbon tax.
Liberal leader Stephane Dion is set to make his carbon tax plan the main talking point of his summer barbecue circuit and possibly the next election campaign—but the Conservatives clearly want to define the issue before he does, and launched a series of attack ads on Sunday over the issue.
The ads refer to "Dion's tax on everything" and contest the Liberal claim that the carbon tax would be balanced by income tax cuts.
The ads are being broadcast on radio but some audio-visual ads—featuring a spot of black grease that talks—are also being aired at gas station pumps.
"Instead of taking this seriously, what do the Conservatives offer? A cartoon, a talking grease spot," Dion said in Parliament.
"When are the Conservatives going to stop insulting Canadians and offer a real plan to tackle climate change instead of cartoons and a campaign of lies?"
Conservative Jason Kenney shot back: "That is exactly what we are calling for, honesty and truth in advertising from the leader of the Liberal Party, who has a plan to impose a multibillion-dollar tax on just about everything for Canadians.
Kenney pointed out that last November Dion had promised not to introduce a carbon tax.
The Liberals are presenting themselves as green and see the issue as a weakness of the minority Conservative government, whose home base is in the energy-rich province of Alberta.
Dion won the leadership of the Liberal Party 18 months ago on a green platform and appears ready to defy conventional political wisdom that in tough economic times voters are less inclined to sacrifice for the environment.
One Liberal source said the plan would add $15 billion in taxes on energy, with the idea that some or all of it would be returned via corporate and personal tax cuts.
Dion said Monday the price of gasoline would not rise since it already has a federal excise tax of 10 Canadian cents a litre.
However, fuel oil, natural gas and some electricity would also be taxed, and the tax on diesel, used by transport trucks, would probably have to be nearly tripled to match the tax on the carbon content of gasoline. Dion confirmed a tax on diesel would be part of the plan.
Liberal enthusiasts for the plan, to be outlined fully in the next two weeks, think that if the corresponding income tax cuts are highlighted, the carbon tax can be framed as something that will help encourage productivity while curbing the output of emissions blamed for climate change.
"You tax less what we want more—income for families, savings, investments—and you shift these taxes to what we want less—that means pollution and greenhouse gas emissions," Dion told reporters.
It does have some Liberals worried about campaigning on a new tax, however, and neither the Conservatives nor the other two opposition parties have backed the concept.
The Liberals are presenting themselves as green and see the issue as a weakness of the Conservatives, but the government counters that greenhouse gas emissions soared under previous Liberal governments and dismiss the carbon tax plan.
"Even while gas prices are going up, he wants to force them higher with higher taxes in order to pay for the billions of dollars of unbudgeted Liberal electoral promises," the Conservatives' Kenney said in Parliament.
Feeds