Another Justin Trudeau-era policy, the EV mandate, has been scrapped. That’s great news for consumers, because ultimately the market should decide the vehicles we buy, not Ottawa claiming some moral high ground. But while this is obviously a good move, let us not forget what came to those who opposed these Trudeau-era climate measures over the last decade.
For the better part of nine years we were told that the consumer carbon tax was not just good policy, but a moral imperative. To question a policy like the emissions cap at the time was questioning climate science itself. We were told that the electric vehicle mandate was civilization’s last hope. Anyone who dared to suggest that these policies were economically ruinous weren’t just wrong. They were immoral, and wanted the world to burn.
Everyone remembers the lectures, from MPs like Mark Holland who equated opposition to these policies to climate denial, shameless selfishness, and a planetary negligence that bordered on being criminal. “What is the cost? It is to give up the future of the planet,” Mark Holland said at the modest suggestion that fuel taxes be paused for the summer to ease travel and vacation costs for Canadians.
Liberal partisans were just as insufferable, throwing accusations of being in the pocket of “big oil” and sacrificing the future for our kids. But now, apparently things have changed. Prime Minister Mark Carney has arrived and reversed, paused, or repealed all of it. Apparently the moral high ground taken to defend those policies wasn’t really that high after all.
And the same Liberal MPs who spent nearly a decade questioning the morality, intelligence, and basic decency of those on the other side are now cheering. The cognitive dissonance here would be remarkable if it were not so pathetically predictable.
So what does all of this reveal? Well it reveals that it was always a sham. No, not global warming, that is very much real, but the policies, sanctimony and moral theatre were always about political posturing.
And just for a moment consider the serious implications of these climate policies if the Liberals of less than a year ago were correct. If these climate policies were in fact essential for the survival of the planet, well our new Prime Minister is condemning us all to hellfire. If they really were non-negotiable moral necessities, well then their reversal represents us collectively turning our backs on the planet. But of course, they were always subject to the shifting winds of electoral polling and economic reality.
What makes this truly outrageous is the treatment of those who saw this years ago. The people who rightfully warned that an EV mandate before infrastructure or consumer demand existed was madness. They were treated as moral fugitives. But now we’re just supposed to simply accept that the prime minister’s pragmatic reversals are wise governance? The same Liberal party that spent the better part of a decade painting its opponents as enemies of the future are now the party of sensible recalibration?
The Trudeau era wasn’t merely a series of bad policies. Bad policies happen all the time at every level of government. The Trudeau era was an exercise in using the language of crisis and urgency to stifle debate and paint those across the aisle as villains. The reversal of these climate policies doesn’t show that the Liberals have really learned anything. It just shows that they never really believed in their rhetoric in the first place.
So yes, it is good news that economically destructive policies like the EV mandate are being abandoned, but I surely won’t forget being called a planet killer for suggesting what Prime Minister Carney is now doing. Will there be apologies? Likely not. That is the way of the righteous, who when reality comes striking down on their moral high ground simply declare victory and move on as if their previous position never existed. Everyone should see, and call out, this maneuvering. Or at least anyone who is paying attention.
Originally published here
