Taking Over the Green Party
"Axe the Tax" ... But Which One?
What if we took over the Green Party of Canada?
Now, hear me out. Some of you may scoff at the current state of the Greens. I know I do. Others may be more sympathetic to their cause.
But let’s be real: under Elizabeth May and her “co-leader” (I’m not even going to look up his name, that’s how irrelevant he is), the Green Party of Canada is basically a more environmentally-conscious version of the already fringe left-wing New Democratic Party.
Gone are the days of Jim Harris, Green Party leader from 2003 to 2006. A self-described “eco-capitalist” the left-wing side of the party accused Harris of moving the Greens too far to the right.
But that’s exactly what the Green Party needs right now.
Consider, the conservative, classical liberal, or libertarian who regards climate change as the existential threat it is. Do they think “axe the tax!” is a good start? Do they trust Pierre Poilevre to be anything but another version of Stephen Harper?
Of course not. The Conservative Party under Poilievre will fix Canada’s Justin Trudeau problem. And that’s a big problem. But then we’ll have a Conservative problem.
And right now, that problem is “axe the tax.”
What is an environmentally-conscious conservative/classical liberal to make of this campaign slogan? Why the carbon tax? Of all taxes, it seems like the one worth keeping.
After all, you tax what you want to inhibit. Alcohol, cannabis, gambling, and tobacco taxes are meant to discourage the consumption of said vices. Hence, a carbon tax to reduce carbon makes perfect sense.
If any government is going to “axe the tax” then it should start with income, property, and capital gains.
After all - an income tax is slavery with extra steps. A property tax means you never truly own your property, you just rent it from the Crown. Capital gains are a surefire way (one of many) to guarantee that large, established corporations will never face serious competition from up-and-coming entrepreneurs.
After all, you need capital to have capitalism. Capital gains taxes make it harder for entrepreneurs to acquire and use the capital they earned for their small businesses, (hindering innovation and competition), while large, established corporations are less impacted.
Not to mention - large corporations have more resources to devote to tax planning and hiring the best tax lawyers and accountants to find and exploit every loophole. A luxury the small-business family-man (or woman) doesn’t have.
Small businesses reinvest their gains back into their business. Capital gains taxes reduce the amount available. Again, large corporations, especially with access to global capital markets, are less affected.
In essence, large corporations can absorb the costs associated with capital gains taxes. Small businesses can’t. The result is a distortion of the market where only large entities can afford to expand and innovate (and patent), reducing competition and consumer choice and squeezing out the middle class.
So “axe the tax” should refer to axing the taxes on the things we want more of: capital, income, and property. Not carbon dioxide.
What if Canada’s only tax was a carbon tax? And since we all exhale carbon, everybody pays a twoonie-a-year. Corporations and businesses spewing more carbon obviously pay more.
No income tax, no capital gains tax, no taxing private property. Free up the resources of the masses so they can better invest in their communities and build a green infrastructure from the ground up. What may work in Saskatchewan might not work in Nova Scotia and vice-versa.
There’s no need to adopt a central “one-size-fits-all” approach.
So what if we took over the Green Party? They’re 22,000 members strong but those numbers are ticking in the downward direction.
All it takes is a significant amount of Canadians to join the Green Party and vote to change their internal politics. An sensible proposal to start with would be nuclear power. No doubt future generations will study this time period and wonder the hell was wrong with us.
Nuclear power is safe, clean, and efficient. But current leader Elizabeth May opposes it based on half-baked ideas that aren’t scientific by any stretch of the imagination.
So what if we took over the Green Party? Canada’s sensible environmentalists.
We join the party and change its politics from within to offer Canadians a rational plan for climate change. One that doesn’t demonize nuclear power, raise taxes, entrust federal bureaucracy with an increasing list of activities and prohibitions.
We join the party and change its politics so the party respects the fundamental tenets that make Canada free and fair.
What if we took the Green Party back from the far-left anti-capitalists? Because capitalism (or markets, whatever term you prefer) is a tool. Like a hammer. And with a hammer, you can build a home. Or you can bash someone’s head in.
For over a century, banks, corporate cronies, and their political minions have been using this tool to bash people’s heads in. But hammers have more than one purpose.