NDP Courts the Mullet Vote

Carole James and the BCNDP are taking a swing at the Campbell Carbon Tax, demanding that the Liberal government 'Axe the Gas Tax'. This page says be careful with that thing. Is it just me, or do any other New Democrats get nervous when the party takes positions nearly identical to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and the Vancouver Province? It's nice that James is drawing on a populist tradition seldom seen on the left since the days of Tommy Douglas and the CCF, but if I just wanted to hear dumbed down griping about high gas prices, I'd switch on CNN and watch Lou Dobbs for a while.

It's not enough to say 'Axe the Gas Tax': the principle of a carbon tax has merit, which is why James will be rushing to block the exits to keep converted Green Party members from rushing back to their myopic hovel of compostable capitalism. For every 4 X 4 driving Mullet in the Kootenays or Prince George that might vote NDP out of spite because he can't drive 55 (at an extra three cents a litre), there's a Scooter buzzing hipster in the Lower Mainland who won't because someone at Starbucks said that the environment is important. What's the difference between an axe and a double-edged sword when each can cut both ways?

If Carole James does lead the NDP to victory in 2009, what happens a couple of months, or years down the road when Translink and BC Transit need more money just to maintain capacity? What if a climate a change-related disaster (like the pine beetle infestation or the severe windstorms of 2007) elicits demands for the government to pull out all the stops to address climate change? Premier James will have little choice but to consider a tax at the gas pumps to go along with a cap and trade system. The NDP's tax may be fairer and be directly targeted to spending on the environment, as opposed to the Liberals greenwashed attempt to buy votes Carole Taylor says is a Carbon Tax, but it won't stop the Right-Wing Dogs of War in the media to cry havoc and scream for another yet incarnation of the Socreds to rise from the ashes of the Liberals' defeat to strangle the socialists in 2013.

What James needs to be talking about here is Just Transition: there is no reason why changing the economy to protect the environment has to leave anyone behind. She also needs to be telling the truth about the fact that taxes can be a good thing. Taxes aren't supposed to be for financing tax cuts for the rich, they're supposed to finance government programs, which are supposed to reflect the aspirations of the people. If the government was serious about fighting climate change, a carbon tax would go directly to things like public transit, green retrofits for public buildings, community fruit & vegetable gardens, and expanding passenger rail in the Highway 99/Interstate 5 corridor: How many cars are idling between White Rock and Blaine every weekend? Is it that a carbon tax is wrong, or is Campbell's carbon tax wrong?

A Socialist party should be agitating for coherent, collective solutions. Obviously, the laissez-faire, free market approach got us into this crisis, so why would anyone in their right mind think it's going to get us out of it? However, do you know what else brought us to the brink we're teetering on now? Lowest common denominator politics like 'Axe the tax'.