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Poilievre and Kinew find common ground T HEY are worlds apart on a raft of issues, but Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Thursday he and Manitoba NDP Premier Wab Kinew share many of the same goals. The two leaders had just held an hour-long meeting at the Manitoba legislature. “I enjoyed spending time with him,” Poilievre told reporters after the meet- ing, which ran twice as long as sched- uled. “I’m obviously a Conservative and he’s obviously a New Democrat — that doesn’t mean we can’t share priorities and have good conversations together. I think it was a good meeting,” Poilievre said before attending his party’s “Axe the tax” rally at the Winnipeg conven- tion centre. “We’ll meet with any provincial leaders of any party who share our common-sense goals in axing the tax, building homes, fixing the budget and stopping the crimes.” Poilievre said Kinew is focused on making energy more affordable, and that he appreciates Manitoba’s provin- cial 14-cent per litre fuel-tax holiday that took effect Jan. 1. Kinew has refused to sign a letter written by seven premiers urging the federal government to pause the April 1 carbon tax increase. Kinew has said he believes Manitoba has a strong case for the federal government to remove its federal carbon levy here and that ef- forts to get to net-zero will be unveiled in the provincial budget April 2. “I think he’s said he wants to exempt Manitoba from the carbon tax and I agree with that,” the federal Conserv- ative leader said. “The fact is that Manitoba produces a phenomenal amount of green energy through its hydroelectricity. Let’s make clean green hydro electricity even more affordable rather than make traditional energy we still need more expensive.” He said they both want more roads and see more economic development. “I shared my agreement with him on that as well. We need to reduce the obstacles so that we can dig more mines, harvest more forestry, launch our ships from more ports and bring home more pay- cheques for our people,” Poilievre said. “He’s a very impressive person,” Poilievre said of Manitoba’s premier. “He’s very knowledgeable and he has a very ambitious set of goals and I share a lot of them.” carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca CAROL SANDERS MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre meets Premier Wab Kinew Thursday at the Manitoba Legislative Building. Trudeau is correct, but no one believes him F OR reasons not entirely clear, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is unwilling to admit he has lost the national argument over carbon taxes. In a pre-budget barnstorming tour of the country, Trudeau continues to argue the underlying logic of carbon pricing is sound, and the facts show his government’s carbon levy has less of an impact on inflation than critics claim. Trudeau has also continued to main- tain that the accompanying rebate program actually provides most Ca- nadians at the lower end of the income scale — the people who need relief from the high cost of living — with more than they pay in carbon tax. If you take the time to drill down into the numbers, Trudeau is not wrong on either point. The problem is, he simply cannot convince anyone he is right. The sheer size of the constituency that opposes the April 1 increase in carbon taxes has grown to the point where it cannot be ignored. Most premiers oppose another increase in the tax, and they are joined by most of the leaders in opposition parties in those provinces. Meanwhile lobby groups, including the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, continue to sound a shrill condemnation of the measure. However, no one has driven the anti-carbon tax movement more than Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who has pinned much of his future electoral hopes and dreams on whip- ping up and sustaining a high-pitched contempt over the Trudeau govern- ment’s carbon policies. Poilievre brought his “Axe the tax” roadshow to Winnipeg Thursday, complete with the branded T-shirts that have become so recognizable in recent weeks. Measure the growing magnitude of the anti-carbon tax community and you can see there little or no chance Trudeau is going to somehow magi- cally change hearts and minds on this issue before the next election. Not that he and some knowledgeable third parties aren’t still trying. This week, more than 300 of the country’s leading economists signed an open letter that challenges Poilievre’s claims about the tax, which calls sev- eral of his talking points “myths.” The economists argue the carbon tax and the rebates are the most cost-ef- fective way of helping lower-income Canadians while also providing a incentive to higher-income earners to find ways to reduce their consumption of fossil fuels. Perhaps fuelled by that support, Trudeau went on the offensive, sug- gesting in Ottawa Wednesday that the premiers who oppose the federal levy have been “misleading Canadians” and “not telling the truth.” Notwithstanding the prime minis- ter’s counteroffensive, he has largely lost the public relations battle on this issue. How and why is a story that reveals both Trudeau’s inherent weaknesses in communication, along with the public’s irrational capacity to swallow misinformation. To wit: a lot of the debate over carbon taxes has focused on whether Canadians get more in rebates than they pay in taxes. Much of the debate is driven by a controversial study by the parliamentary budget office. The office report found that on av- erage, Canadians pay several hundred dollars more in carbon tax than they receive in rebates. However, the data shows eight in 10 Canadians who live in provinces that use the federal car- bon tax receive more in rebates than they pay in carbon tax. The disparity between the findings is the result of an irrefutable reality: a greater number of lower-income citizens burn considerably less fossil fuel and receive considerably more in rebates than a much, much smaller number of higher-income Canadians who, quite frankly, are much better positioned to weather the higher prices of fossil fuels. Not only do Canadians seem unable to process this data, they dispute the notion they even receive a rebate. Every tax-filing household in the eight provinces that employ the federal carbon tax — approximately 12 million people — receive a rebate. Yet, opinion surveys consistently show that roughly half of all respondents claim they did not. Ottawa has theorized that this is because 81 per cent of those who receive a rebate get it in the form of a quarterly direct deposit, which is less noticeable than receiving a cheque. The other part of the debate that Trudeau has lost is counteracting alle- gations that carbon taxes have been a major driver of inflation. Anything that provides upward pressure on the prices of goods and services has a role in driving inflation. But macro forces, such as supply and demand, global trade dynamics and price-gouging, play a much bigger role than a single levy on a single commod- ity that has a minimal impact on the overall price of goods and services. That is pretty much what Trudeau has been trying to tell people about the carbon tax. He’s just failed to get his message across. The end result for the prime minis- ter is that the longer he tries to prove that he is right on carbon taxes, the greater the chance he will end up being so colossally wrong. dan.lett@winnipegfreepress.com DAN LETT OPINION ;