Green Party leader Elizabeth May seems to lack the most basic ability all successful politicians have to pause in order to consider her words carefully, and then answer a question without offending people or making light of a serious subject.

In an interview with the Guelph Mercury editorial board, Elizabeth May says she was close to slitting her wrists after listening to the leader's debate during the last election, finding the politicians remarks too well packaged.

The editorial board was taken aback by Elizabeth May's flippant reference to suicide, and as a result, Elizabeth May spoiled an opportunity to deliver the Green Party message.

It makes me wonder just why the Green Party puts up with her.  It isn't the first time this has happened.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 11:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Stephane Dion is going to roll out a carbon tax plan.  Canadians are praising it or denouncing it, without any idea of what the plan is actually going to be.

Let's try and figure it out.  Just the base carbon tax rate and nothing more.  It's not really all that hard to do.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 09:38 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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After all the talk about a carbon tax, my mind keeps coming back to the same thing.  Why are we talking about it at all?  I mean, The Liberal Party has not released any details.  But by allowing the Conservatives to know ahead of time that an announcement concerning a carbon tax is in the very near future, the Conservatives have been able to frame the issue.

You would think Liberals would have learned that by now.

The story was apparently leaked.  But I thought that maybe, just maybe, the Liberals were being clever.  Perhaps this was a trial balloon.

Then I looked at it again, and realized there is no way this could be a trial balloon.  It was a leak, plain and simple.  Worse, it was designed to hurt Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion.  Worse still, the leak came from an Ontario Liberal, and not a Quebec Liberal, which means Stephane Dion seems to be no closer to solving his leadership problems, and indeed his problems might be growing.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 12:25 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Ever wonder why a consumption tax (like a carbon tax) is politically unpopular compared to a sales tax (like the GST)?

The Liberals under Jean Chretien wondered that in 1993 when they took over from the Progressive Conservatives.  Jean Chretien had promised to eliminate the GST, but of course, he didn't.  Different alternatives to the GST are discussed in this report.  It is very interesting to note what the researcher had to say about consumption taxes, and it helps understand why we still have the GST.

Of course, under a government led by Stephane Dion, we would get the worst of both worlds.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 12:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Stephane Dion's carbon tax is not a gas tax, or so members of the Liberal Party are supposed to say.  Too bad not all the Liberals got the memo.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:58 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I haven't written about Stephane Dion's carbon tax idea, not since it was announced that he intended to make a carbon tax a cornerstone of a Liberal Party platform in the next election.

I wanted my thoughts to gel, to consider just what such a tax could do, good and bad.  I'm glad I waited, because as I began to peal away the layers, I realized that a carbon tax is really unlike any tax every imposed by a government.  It is guaranteed to succeed.

Posted by: Steve Janke at 10:39 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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