Roundup: Launching a laughable climate plan

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With much fanfare – and a moving backdrop that was dizzying to watch – Erin O’Toole rolled out his much-ballyhooed climate plan yesterday morning, and it was…underwhelming. And bizarre. Replacing climate rebates with a special “savings account” that can only be used to purchase “green” items like bicycles and high-efficiency furnaces? Yeah, that’s not an improvement, you guys. And lo, it’s not winning O’Toole any plaudits in his own party either, with caucus members telling media that they were essentially blindsided by this, and many feel it’s a betrayal, and a sign that he has no credibility because he’ll say anything to get elected. And they probably have a point.

Here is some reaction to the news, with additional threads from Nic Rivers and Jennifer Robson.

https://twitter.com/robert_hiltz/status/1382694545398317066

https://twitter.com/robert_hiltz/status/1382716424087605252

https://twitter.com/robert_hiltz/status/1382722697159925764

Meanwhile, I have a beef with CBC’s coverage of the issue, because they insist on framing the existing Liberal carbon price as a tax – which it’s not because it doesn’t go into general revenue, and the Supreme Court of Canada said this – but they insisted on calling the Conservative plan a “levy,” when it’s the exact same gods damned mechanism as the existing Liberal plan that just recycles the revenues differently. You can’t call one a tax and the other a levy because that is massively misleading. It places a wholly negative frame around the Liberal plan and not the Conservative one when, again, it’s the same mechanism. “Taxes” come with particular preconceived notions around them, in particular the gem about “taxes are theft,” and so on. CBC’s editorial decision to use this framing device biases the conversation and perceptions around the programmes, which is a very big problem.

Good reads:

  • The quality assurance backlog at Moderna’s factory means deliveries are going to be delayed by as much as another week.
  • Top brass in the military told a committee that they have implemented the 10 recommendations of the Deschamps Report; Deschamps says they haven’t.
  • The CRTC has ordered major wireless carriers to sell wholesale access to regional carriers for the next seven years in order to boost competition.
  • The Federal Court of Appeal has ruled that the Safe Third Country Agreement is in fact constitutional after all, after the Federal Court ruled against it.
  • The Government House Leader is calling for an investigation into who leaked the screenshot of MP William Amos changing on camera.
  • NDP MP Don Davies has tabled a bill to decriminalise all drug use.
  • Heather Scoffield gets wind of what the government’s new climate targets are going to be, and looks at whether we’ll be up to the challenge or not.
  • Matt Gurney derides the incomprehensibility of O’Toole’s new climate plan.

Odds and ends:

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4 thoughts on “Roundup: Launching a laughable climate plan”

  1. No, the entire CBC board didn’t miss that class in journalism school. They paid careful attention to how to use framing devices to bias coverage . . . on purpose.

    • Didn’t Harper stack the board with Fox-wannabe Tory sycophants the way Boris has with Auntie Beeb? IDK if their contracts expired already, but their hiring and editorial decisions sure left a lasting stench behind. Using newspeak and doublethink to massage the message, “Because it’s Nineteen Eighty-Four.”

      Conservative Broadcasting Corporation, Conrad Black Corporation, Crony Bailout Corporation, Click Bait Corporation…

    • The CBC board does not control editorial decisions. Suggesting otherwise is conspiracy theory.

  2. Every news outlet should state….” neutral carbon levy” instead of carbon tax which it is NOT. Now after years of deriding the Trudeau government for stealing people’s money through a “tax grab” the Cons now are proposing a carbon tax that will give us all credits that we can redeem for products decided by a Tory government. Talk about theft of money from Canadians with dubious abilities to get the dough back/ Pah!

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