Trudeau should heed his own advice about 'heavy-handed' government and Poilievre should help all Canadians, not just the 'working class'
We spend so much time in this business slagging politicians for saying stupid things that when they do say something wise or profound or even just correct, we owe it to them and to you, reader, to say so.
As Matthew Lau points out, last week Justin Trudeau went after Pierre Poilievre and seven provincial premiers for wanting to cancel April 1st’s hike in the carbon tax. The argument he used was classic mainstream economics. A carbon tax is better than asking the “heavy hand” of government to “pick winners and losers” with regulations and subsidies. “I prefer a cleaner solution, a market-based solution, of saying, ‘You know what? If you’re behaving in ways that are gonna cause pollution that is going to impact the whole community, you should pay for that pollution.” Categorizing carbon emissions as “pollution” is slippery sleight-of-hand but if such emissions do harm the climate, an overwhelming majority of economists — 90 per cent in a Clark Center poll of American A-listers — believe a carbon tax is the way to go.
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(Trudeau added the classic end-days justification of all politicians in their professional death spirals: “My job is not to be popular — although it helps. My job is to do the right things for Canada now and do the right things for Canadians a generation from now, and that’s what I’ve been focused on. And yeah, it’s not always popular.” Echoes of Brian Mulroney after his own popularity had tanked.)
But of course, as Lau notes, when the subject of the “heavy hand” of government comes up, well, you’ve heard of Edward Scissors-Hands. As policy goes, the prime minister is “Justin Anvil-Hands.” You want winners and losers? How about Volkswagen, Stellantis and Northvolt and $32 billion in subsidies? And they’re just the biggest beneficiaries. Hundreds of other firms benefit from dozens of different programs aiming to encourage an energy transition the prime minister now says the carbon tax should be causing all on its own.
Pierre Poilievre also said some interesting things last week. Before the Vancouver Board of Trade, in what he boasted was his first speech to a business association after 110 visits to shop floors and five to union locals since becoming Conservative leader, he repeatedly said his government’s overriding goal would be to improve the lives of “working-class” Canadians. The NDP’s Ed Broadbent at least referred to “ordinary Canadians” (even if many of us didn’t like being called “ordinary”). Justin Trudeau has always said he’s for “the middle class and those working hard to join it” (and his tax policies have caused many formerly upper class Canadians to do exactly that). Now Comrade Poilievre is targeting the “working” classes. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a politician work for all Canadians, ordinary and extraordinary, whether working-, middle-, upper- or even no-class?
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Poilievre told the Board of Trade he had waited so long to speak to a business association because his experience with corporate lobbyists was that they were “utterly useless” in advancing agendas that were good for Canadians in general or their workers in particular. All they were interested in was taking ministers to lunch at the Rideau Club and handing out their latest ESG (environment, sustainability and governance) brochure.
If business wants something from a Poilievre government, he went on, it will have to take its case to the Canadian people and persuade them first. Not that he doesn’t like business but his common-sense Conservative approach is a “bottom-up free enterprise agenda, not a top-down state capitalism agenda.”
There’s a lot to like in those comments. In my experience, Canadian businesses self-censor more than any other group in society — or at least they did until cancel culture introduced us all to self-censorship on an East German scale. In private conversation, many business folk tell you what they really think. But in public they hew to middle-of-the-road mush, terrified of offending existing or potential customers. As Michael Jordan once put it, “Republicans buy sneakers, too.”
But it’s not just consumer backlash they’re afraid of. It was striking in Barbara Shecter’s riveting article in Saturday’s FP about government designs on Canadians’ pension assets how many industry types would talk to her only on condition of anonymity. That’s not because they’re afraid if they say something politically wrong-footed, people will withdraw their funds and move to another pension plan. (Changing pensions is a lot harder than changing sneaker brand, though maybe it shouldn’t be.) It’s because they’re afraid that if they say something the government doesn’t like, that will poison their relations with an entity that doesn’t quite have life-and-death power over them but can certainly make their life more or less miserable.
When governments do have such power — and they do, over just about all industries now — the only responsible course for an executive who takes shareholders and the value of their investments seriously is to invite the minister to lunch at the Rideau Club and whisper in his or her ear. Going public with a strong message is just too dangerous.
When you give people millions, even billions of dollars, they return the favour with at least a convincing facsimile of friendship. Pierre Poilievre talks a good game so far. But will he really have the will power, once in charge, not to try to buy friends or steer our economic evolution? He will be a truly unusual politician if he does.
Fingers crossed on that. But breath not bated.
Financial Post
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William Watson: Trudeau embraces the market, Poilievre class warfare
10
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19.03.2024
Trudeau should heed his own advice about 'heavy-handed' government and Poilievre should help all Canadians, not just the 'working class'
We spend so much time in this business slagging politicians for saying stupid things that when they do say something wise or profound or even just correct, we owe it to them and to you, reader, to say so.
As Matthew Lau points out, last week Justin Trudeau went after Pierre Poilievre and seven provincial premiers for wanting to cancel April 1st’s hike in the carbon tax. The argument he used was classic mainstream economics. A carbon tax is better than asking the “heavy hand” of government to “pick winners and losers” with regulations and subsidies. “I prefer a cleaner solution, a market-based solution, of saying, ‘You know what? If you’re behaving in ways that are gonna cause pollution that is going to impact the whole community, you should pay for that pollution.” Categorizing carbon emissions as “pollution” is slippery sleight-of-hand but if such emissions do harm the climate, an overwhelming majority of economists — 90 per cent in a Clark Center poll of American A-listers — believe a carbon tax is the way to go.
Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.
Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.
Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.
(Trudeau added the classic end-days justification of all politicians in their professional death spirals: “My job is not to be popular — although it helps. My job is to do the right things for Canada now and do the right things for Canadians a generation from now, and that’s what I’ve been focused on. And yeah, it’s not always popular.” Echoes of Brian Mulroney........
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