Blue Like You

This is just awful. The body of a Quebec cabinet minister’s assistant, Nancy Michaud, has been found in the basement of an abandoned house.

My heart goes out to her family and especially to her two small children. What kind of animal could do such a thing?

More from CTV .

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Update : Quebec police arrest suspect in Michaud’s death - CTV .

For purely partisan reasons, I feel that Stéphane Dion should stick to his guns regarding carbon taxes - and in different times, it could possibly have worked .

However, as Warren Kinsella and others have pointed out, we already have de facto carbon taxes right now with fuel prices escalating across the board. This not only affects the average citizen in terms of heating costs and extra expenses associated with driving a vehicle, but also indirectly affects all the other layers of taxes with rising costs for anything the federal, provincial and municipal governments require in terms of their own needs, which of course are inevitably passed on to the taxpayer. So we are getting the shaft in spades already.

Add to that some ‘tax-shifting’ and the poor average citizen will be mired in extra costs, with dubious returns in terms of income tax reductions. And how could the latter occur anyway, if the costs of everything the burgeoning government bureaucracies require would increase? Private companies that supply the governments would have to pass on their costs directly to the consumer, which again is the person staring at you in the mirror. And of course the rings of government and public service workers wouldn’t be lowering their salaries to accommodate the rising costs, would they?

And what about the seniors? There is a rising wave of Grey Power out there that is not going to take this assault on their meager pensions lightly. Some can barely hold onto their homes as it is. And this is the demographic that is more likely to get out and vote.

So as I said, Stéphane , don’t listen to the nay-sayers! Stick to your plan. Principle is always better than political acuity, n’est-ce pas?

And if you have any trouble selling your vision, just call Dr. Kyoto .

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Update: Just caught a newscast from Collingwood, Ontario. Shop owners are crying the blues due to cold, rainy weather and high gas prices keeping tourists away. So how would your gas tax help that again, Stéphane?

And BTW, send us a bit of that global warming here in Ontario!!!

Steve Janke - Does David Suzuki advocate exempting industry from the Liberal carbon tax? This is a must-read, folks!