CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – When it comes to talking about the Liberal Green Shift proposal for a carbon tax, Prince Edward Island farmers suddenly become bad spellers.
Some drop the “f” in shift or think there is an “a” rather than an “i”.
“You have to understand that Island farmers depend on fossil fuel-based inputs and everything they buy or sell has to be trucked onto or off of the Island, and the sector has been having income problems for the better part of a decade,” said beef producer and P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture president John Colwill.
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“I know they have made some changes and promised some money for farmers but it still will be a huge cost. They say it will be revenue neutral but it won’t be for farmers and that’s not fair.”
Colwill said some larger farmers have told him it will cost them thousands of dollars up front and they might get back hundreds if they fill out the forms.
As it will be across rural Canada, the Liberal carbon tax will be a tough sell in Atlantic Canada where most of the Liberals’ remaining rural seats reside.
Don Mills, president of Halifax polling company Corporate Research Associates, said a poll being published this week shows opposition to the carbon tax running two to one in the region.
“One of the predominant issues among Atlantic Canadians is heating and fuel costs and that will become more pronounced as we move toward the heating season,” he said Sept. 7. “This will be a real burden for the Liberals.”
In the Island’s four ridings, three of them overwhelmingly rural, the Conservatives are leaping on the issue with joy.
“The carbon tax is going to be a key part of the campaign,” said candidate Mary Crane, who is trying to unseat five-term Liberal Wayne Easter. “It is a devastating policy for rural P.E.I.”
“The big issue here is going to be the carbon tax,” said Philip Brown, a former P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture president, provincial MLA and cabinet minister and campaign manager for neighbouring Egmont Conservative candidate Gail Shea, considered by many to be the best party hope of ending a 20-year drought for Conservative federal politicians on the Island.
“It will have a tremendous impact on farmers and rural P.E.I and we don’t know its full impact but it will hit every part of the production chain. People are scared.”
Easter insists that recent changes to include rebates and incentives for farmers will make the proposal more salable.
He plans to campaign hard on the argument that all parties have a carbon tax in their environmental program but only the Liberals are being honest about the cost while offering farmers offsets.
“I feel confident that even if voters have a problem with the Green Shift, they will support me anyway,” he said Sept. 7. “We will have to get the message out that other parties’ plans will cost more, including the Conservatives, but they are not being honest and transparent.”
Joe McGuire, retiring as Egmont Liberal MP after 20 years, conceded that defending the carbon tax will be a drag on Liberals. The best response will be to change the channel, to deflect attention by raising other issues.
“If the election turns on the Green Shift, it will be a problem but there are many other issues and I believe the party strategy has to be to highlight those other issues,” he said Sept. 7. “But defending Green Shift will be tough because it is complicated and it is easier for people to believe something bad is going to happen than something good.”
Pollster Mills said the Conservatives seem to have succeeded in framing the Green Shift as a tax grab that will hurt many rather than as a neutral environmental policy.
“It is going to be a tough sell and the Conservatives will try to make it one of the key issues.”
