Taxpayers' watchdog urges leadership hopefuls to axe carbon tax

Article content

OTTAWA — Canada’s taxpayer watchdog group wants Liberal leadership hopefuls to make cutting the contentious carbon tax part of their platform.

As the Federal Liberals begin the process of choosing a successor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is calling on candidates to commit scrapping the unpopular carbon tax — particularly its upcoming hike scheduled to go into effect April 1.

“This was Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s costly failure and the carbon tax should go out the door with him,” the CTF’s Alberta Director Kris Sims said in a press release.

“Why would the next Liberal leader want to keep this political millstone and continue to punish taxpayers whenever they fill up at the gas station or pay their home-heating bill?”

Repealing the April 1 carbon tax hike before it goes into effect is growing less likely with Parliament is prorogued until March 24 and all opposition parties promising to topple the minority Liberal government in a confidence vote, which would send Canadians to the polls to elect a new government.

“A carbon tax hike in the first days of an election will absolutely infuriate taxpayers, and pausing that hike would be a half measure that taxpayers would view as a silly pre-election gimmick,” Sims said.

“The next Liberal leader is facing a stark choice: kick off the election by hiking the carbon tax or scrap the failed scheme completely.”

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume