Adam Radwanski, who is apparently a “Policy columnist and feature writer” with the Globe & Stale, writes “An inherited policy likely to be at the heart of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new ‘climate competitiveness’ strategy is in a state of severe disrepair.” But the industrial carbon tax of which he speaks, far from being in disrepair, is functioning at full throttle, whish is why it is so unpopular. What Carney plans to do about it will, according to Radwanski, “go a long way toward establishing not only Mr. Carney’s environmental credibility, but the viability of his intended grand bargain with the country’s fossil-fuel industry and the provinces that are home to it.” There is no such bargain, of course, unless you count “you keep paying it and we keep punishing you” as the deal of the century. As for Carney’s end of the supposed bargain, Parliament just voted to retain the “oil and gas emissions cap” while subsidies pour into failed alternatives. Oh, and BTW the bureaucracy continues to insist that that oil and gas cap will have “very minimal impact” on the energy industry but a massive impact on emissions. But they would, wouldn’t they?”
Carney, meanwhile, in climate grandee style, continues to jet around the world pronouncing on the evils of carbon emissions while fleeing the mundane business of, oh, producing a budget. For instance, with Canada’s fiscal situation in peril and the world on fire, “Prime Minister Carney meets with Prime Minister of Iceland Kristrún Frostadóttir”. And why? Gosh, bloviation central:
“Today, the Prime Minister, Mark Carney, met with the Prime Minister of Iceland, Kristrún Frostadóttir, on the margins of the Global Progress Action Summit in London. Prime Minister Carney and Prime Minister Frostadóttir noted the strong relationship between Canada and Iceland. Canada is home to the largest Icelandic community outside Iceland. The prime ministers underscored the importance of transatlantic unity and shared security across the Arctic. Building on the momentum from their meeting at the NATO Summit this past June, the leaders discussed opportunities to deepen security and economic co-operation. To that end, Prime Minister Carney emphasised Canada’s commitment to working with Allies and partners, including through the Arctic Council, to advance Arctic security. The two leaders reaffirmed their enduring support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s ongoing war of aggression and agreed on the imperative of establishing a just and lasting peace. Prime Minister Carney and Prime Minister Frostadóttir agreed to remain in close contact.”
Meaningless froth leading up to a final promise that is both trivial and false. If he thought governing was that easy, he’d be at home trying it. Instead “Prime Minister Carney meets with Prime Minister of Australia Anthony Albanese” where “They also discussed innovative solutions to fast-track affordable housing construction in their respective countries” and so on and so on.
As usual, the establishment media take the view that partisans may whine but “One international affairs expert, however, said Carney appears to be doing the job he was elected to do”. And when experts say… Also, such media tend to overlook the large personal stake the massively-wealthy Prime Minister has in various kinds of alternative energy.
Still, a man who takes the job frivolously to frivolous applause can still do serious harm. The usual suspects claim Carney has abandoned the climate and his brain and now wants to incinerate the Earth contrary to the ravings of his book Values. But in fact he still seems to think the stuff he always thought.
On her substack, historian Tammy Nemeth writes about the Canadian Prime Minister’s obsession with “climate competitiveness”, exactly the sort of sententiously sonorous nonsense that somehow passes for deep thought in places like Davos. And she tries to imagine what might conceivably appear in long-delayed budget supposedly to appear on Nov. 4. Unfortunately from an “Enhanced industrial carbon tax” to “Enhanced ‘clean fuel standards’” to “Methane Emissions Performance Standards” it all amounts to more intervention on the notion that gutting the conventional energy industry at the heart of our economy will somehow cause a massive surge in productivity and prosperity because it sounds good as polysyllabic symbol manipulation.
What almost nobody thinks is that it means enhancing our actual competitiveness in tried-and-true ways like lowering and simplifying taxes, cutting regulations, and getting energy costs down. Which if he did it would really give him something to talk about, in Iceland and elsewhere. Like, say, his office, working on the many difficult files from fiscal prudence to military procurement to rampant advocacy of terror in our streets that might well concern a lesser man.
