Amid a week of heavy political scrutiny over Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s exclusive carbon-price carve-out for home heating oil, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is pushing for a pause on all forms of home heating, until Canadians can have their say in “a carbon tax election.”
“We all know that we’re not going to agree on the carbon tax. He wants to raise it. I want to axe it… So let’s make a deal. Let’s pause the carbon tax on all home heating until Canadians go to the polls so that we can have a carbon tax election,” Poilievre said Wednesday.
“Where Canadians will decide between his plan to quadruple the tax to 61 cents a litre on heat, gas, and groceries, and my common sense plan to axe the tax and bring home lower prices… That will be the choice in the carbon tax election. Justin Trudeau just has to decide when that will happen. But, it will happen and Canadians will decide,” Poilievre said.
Poilievre issued his electoral challenge to Trudeau during a rallying speech to his caucus Wednesday morning, which he invited media to cover. In his opening remarks, the Official Opposition leader painted a hypothetical and dramatized picture of the prime minister trembling in the corner of his office “in the fetal position” over Poilievre’s Atlantic Canada “Axe the Tax” tour.
The Conservative leader said he will be advancing a non-binding motion in the House of Commons, forcing all MPs to vote next week on extending the pause on home heating oil to all Canadians, something he is pressing for NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh to back, given his shared criticism that the current policy pivot is unfair.
His party is also planning to roll out a new ad buy across radio stations in Northern Ontario focused on the Conservatives’ calls to extend the three-year pause to all forms of home heating, according to Poilievre’s office, who said the majority of residents in the region heat their homes with natural gas.
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