Blue Like You

Archive for June 28th, 2008

Quick update to the tragic story of Aqsa Parvez if you had been following it.

As you may recall, Aqsa had allegedly been strangled to death by her father for refusing to wear a hijab. Her brother had been originally charged with obstructing justice, but now we learn that Peel police have charged 27-year-old Waqas Parvez with first degree murder.

As Tarek Fatah and Farzana Hassan observed in their Dec. 12/07 Post article, The deadly face of Muslim extremism:

…Radical Muslim men consider themselves ultimately responsible for the conduct of the womenfolk. This outlook is rooted in a medieval ethos that treats women as nonpersons, unable to decide for themselves what they should wear, where they must go and what they must accomplish in life. If their conduct is seen as contravening this austere religious outlook, they are invariably subjected to abuse…

It’s sad that this tolerant society of ours only intervenes after such a tragedy has occurred.

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Related: Excellent article for background information - Honor killings: When the ancient and the modern collide.

I think that part of Stephane Dion’s problem is that he still sees the world from an an academic point of view - If it works in theory, then it should work in real life, no matter what unexpected variable might be thrown into the mix.

This simplistic and rather naive perspective is likely what contributes to his aura of sincerity, but his downfall is that he steadfastly refuses to address the negatives or answer technical questions beyond a theoretical context.

Instead, most questions and criticisms of his carbon tax plan are brushed aside with either a rose-coloured description of how Canadians are intelligent and have ‘big hearts’ - as if that will somehow explain the holes in his platform. (Or else he tells reporters that he’s not talking numbers because they wouldn’t trust him anyway! ) He refuses to even consider the possibility that Canadians will not warm up to it:

…Asked whether his future as Liberal Leader would be imperilled by failing to sell such a complex plan, Mr. Dion denied the plan is complicated.

“I think Mr. Harper is underestimating the intelligence of Canadians, the big hearts of Canadians,” he said. He added that other Conservative Party leaders in the world, including Britain’s David Cameron, have suggested green taxes as a way to fight climate change.

Well, considering that even Dion himself admits that Saskatchewan and Alberta would have to endure the lion’s share of the pain, that would make those residents the most philanthropic citizens in the world if they were to comply. Basically he wants those two provinces to finance his vision for a greener, richer, fairer Canada. His green shaft policy would certainly appear to embody those three peel-ers . I can see why he is so excited to sell the plan.

But would it actually achieve those goals? Terence Corcoran explains how Dion’s policy is not based on solid economic principles, and that similar models in Europe have failed to produce the desired results for carbon emission reductions (Economics only thing shifting):

…He is steadfast in his target — carbon emissions at 20% below 1990 levels by 2020 –even though, as I told him, that would mean removing the equivalent of the entire Canadian transportation (including personal auto use) and the entire electric utility sectors in not much more than a decade.

To get there, Mr. Dion seems to have a clear overview and strategy — how he will negotiate harmonization of his $40-a-tonne carbon plan with British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell’s $30-a-tonne plan to create a $70 joint project; how he will approach a U. S. president to work out a continental cap-and-trade emissions network that Canadian firms could join; how the Green Shift will "be very good for Saskatchewan and Alberta" because the heavy tax loads on their energy producers will prompt them "to invest in Canada more."

Some of this is novel theory, more speculative and fanciful than hard economics. Taxes have never before been seen as a spur to more investment…

Moreover:

…Foreign experience with carbon taxes as economic policy is far from the unequivocal success Mr. Dion talks about. He seemed unaware of the record of job losses and uneven economic performance recorded in Europe in the wake of various environmental taxes and energy price moves. Within specific countries, including Sweden, which the Green Shift plan cites as a model, the role of green taxes is a mixed bag. Alleged boosts to new investment do not take place. And, most telling, the impact on carbon emissions has been limited.

The best and most sobering look at Europe’s green tax experiments is a paper by the Centre for European Policy Studies titled The Political Economy of Environmental Taxation in European Countries. After more than a decade of rampant green taxation and regulation, a sort of lab test for every policy fantasy known to economists and politicians, Europe essentially ended up proving the policies really didn’t work.

(Too much to quote here, but please read the whole article.)

So anyway, there goes 2 of Dion’s three peelers. As for the ‘fairer’ one, well that may be accomplished by a massive wealth transfer to the poor, but is that actually ‘fair’ to the western provinces? Something tells me the answer would be a resounding ‘non’.

Yes, of course we’d all seeing rising prices in everything we use daily, but in the west it would hurt the most. Of course, as one of SDA’s readers (Andrew) noted:

...If Dion becomes Prime Minister, watch Canada meet its Kyoto targets and achieve M. Dion’s reduction targets when Alberta and Saskatchewan leave and take their 40% of "Greenhouse emissions" with them. All of a sudden, the problem is solved.

But how would that leave us ‘richer’, Stephane?

So to sum up Dion’s theory, he feels confident that intelligent, generous Canadians will support his plan.

Well, I guess you’ll have to put me under the dumb and selfish category, because I just don’t get it.

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Update: Post editorial - Liberals are still kicking the West.

And this is a MUST-READ : Lorne Gunter - Dion carbon tax would shaft the west again.

Three BT bloggers assess the reaction of various premiers to Dions’ green shaft:

Steve Janke - No votes? Screw you!

Reid - Green Shaft…

Raphael - How the ‘Green Shift’ is flying around the Premiers.