Tzeporah Berman of the climate change advocacy group PowerUp Canada struck a devastating blow against the New Democratic Partyโs ill-advised opposition to the BC carbon tax yesterday with a letter pointing out NDP leader Carole Jamesโ hypocrisy on theย issue.
Berman, whose criticism of the NDPโs position was featured in a line story in the Vancouver Sun Friday, began the letter by saying to James, โI feel deeply betrayed by the BC NDP Platform released last week and your flip-flops on green economy and climate policy. You are playing partisan politics with our childrenโs future.โ
Berman made the case for the efficacy of a carbon tax and noted, with the following quotes, that NDP leader James had also once been an avowed carbon taxย fan:
โ[We will] apply carbon taxes to motivate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by ensuring that prices of fossil fuels reflect the environmental and social costs of their production and use, while building in โjust transitionโ measures to minimize impacts on low income households.โ NDPโs Sustainable BC Environmental Plan, Februaryย 2007
โI think a revenue-neutral carbon tax that really looks at supporting low- and middle-income families, that actually is phased in so people can manage, that provides them with options to make change, then I think itโs worth looking at.โ – Carole James, February 14, 2008, Voice of BC.
โ[We recommend] effective climate change initiatives that apply carbon taxes to motivate reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.โย (http://www.buildingsustainablebc.ca/movie)
โYou have to go to a carbon tax. My sense is itโs the only way to go. If we truly believe that the market is the way to change behaviour, both market behaviour and individual behaviour, itโs the way to do it.โ – Bob Simpson, November 1, 2007, Voice of BC.
Some New Democrats have been trying to paint Berman, and anyone else who criticizes the NDP carbon tax position, as partisan supporters of the Liberal Party, a transparently desperate attempt to move the conversation from policy to politics. But Berman is not campaigning for the Liberals. Sheโs saying, โVote strategically away from NDP unless they change their positionย quickly.โ
Sounds like good advice – for the voters AND for the NDP.
