There are lots of good reasons to want a new prime minister. Here’s a bad one: Boredom.
And make no mistake: Everybody’s bored of Justin Trudeau right now.
That’s why nobody’s willing to admit his tweaks to carbon pricing make total sense: The changes simultaneously support struggling Canadians and Canada’s climate goals.
The fact is that home heating oil costs two to four times as much as electricity or natural gas. But it also costs up to $20,000 to replace an oil furnace with a heat pump.
Yes, previous government rebates brought the usual cost down to around $5,000. But still, how many Canadians can find an extra $5,000 between the cushions in the couch?
Plus oil is by far the most polluting form of home heating in Canada. So phasing it out – by helping poor Canadians transition to something cleaner and cheaper – is simply a no-brainer.
But who cares about making sense anymore? The Canadian public and Canada’s pundits are tired of Trudeau, and they’re clamouring for the “common sense” conservatism of Pierre Poilievre.
This disregard for logic was on display in a CBC Front Burner podcast this week, in which the host and subject both struggled to characterize Trudeau’s tweaks as anything but “regional pandering.”
It’s true that more homes use heating oil per capita in Atlantic Canada. And it’s true that Atlantic Canada has traditionally been a Liberal stronghold. And yes, Atlantic Canada was unhappy with the carbon tax.
But three quarters of Canadian homes heated with oil are outside Atlantic Canada. And helping those households transition to a heat pump would save money and reduce pollution at the same time.
All of which is to say: Trudeau’s plan makes t0tal sense. But nobody cares, because he’s been prime minister for eight years… and everybody’s sick of looking at his face.
This sentiment also showed up in an episode of CPAC’s PrimeTime Politics this week, in which everybody took for granted that his changes to the carbon tax amount to a betrayal of the climate.
The fact is that only 3% of Canadian homes are still heated with oil. So Canada actually stands a chance of phasing it out… just as the Liberals have nearly phased out coal-burning power plants.
Still, The Globe and Mail clearly wants Trudeau gone too. Case in point: This week it breathlessly reported that the Liberals paid $670,000 in consulting fees for advice on how to spend less on consulting.
This was presented as a “gotcha” moment. But that’s a paltry sum in the scheme of government spending… especially if it results in even a modest drop in consultant spending, which is out of control.
All of which is to say – something that’s totally unsayable but nonetheless totally worth saying: Justin Trudeau is actually doing a really good job right now.
Maybe he wasn’t doing a good job six months ago. But do you really think Canada would elect Jagmeet Singh? Or that Pierre Poilievre would do a better job?
Singh almost certainly can’t beat Poilievre, because Poilievre is better at appealing to the working class. And Poilievre almost certainly can’t beat beat Trudeau on policy, because Poilievre doesn’t have any.
Or at least that remains to be seen. Poilievre has yet to offer anything substantive on housing, affordability, or the climate… aside from contempt, resentment, and rage, of course.
Such is the luxury of being the opposition leader. Poilievre doesn’t need to draft Conservative policy until he’s prime minister. He just needs to dunk on Liberal policy.
But what if there’s nothing more to Poilievre than meets the eye? What if there’s no there there? What if he’s just an eloquent asshole?