The
luxury of Canadian elections is that they don’t matter too much. We are
embroiled in only one unpopular foreign war, our financial institutions are not
yet shattering under the weight of mass greed, our health care system isn’t on
the brink of collapse, and none of our hockey moms will be given the launch
codes for a nuclear armory. But the upcoming election, called for October 14th
of this year, has put one of the boldest and most important policy initiatives
in global politics on the table: the Liberal Party’s “green shift.” The policy
would make carbon taxation the principal source of government revenue. And
though Stéphane Dion, the Liberal party leader, claims the new tax would be
revenue neutral--involving deep cuts to corporate and personal income tax--the
shift would completely restructure the Canadian economy around its
environmental policy. Al Gore could ask for no more.
Stephen Marche is a
culture columnist for Esquire, and
the author, most recently, of Shining
at the Bottom of the Sea.
By Stephen Marche