EDITORIAL: Thank Poilievre for Carney’s gas tax holiday

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The Liberals said removing the tax, starting Monday until Labour Day, will lower the cost of gasoline by 10 cents per litre, and diesel and aviation fuel by four cents per litre, costing the federal treasury $2.4 billion in foregone revenue.

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We agree with Carney’s announcement, which is yet another policy first proposed by Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who called for it on April 2.

To be sure, Poilievre would have gone further, suspending not only the federal excise tax to the end of 2026, but also cancelling the GST on gas and permanently eliminating the federal clean fuel standard and industrial carbon tax.

Poilievre said that would lower the price of gasoline by 25 cents per litre and 21 cents per litre on diesel, saving a family of four about $20 for every minivan fill-up and more than $1,200 by the end of 2026.

He said the lost government revenue would be more than made up by the billions of dollars in additional tax revenue the government is getting from high oil prices caused by the Mideast war.

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Of course, Carney said he didn’t get the idea of suspending the excise tax from Poilievre, but what else is he going to say?

It’s not as if he hasn’t stolen ideas from Poilievre before.

Carney’s elimination of the consumer carbon tax, support for the construction of a new pipeline from Alberta’s oilsands to tidewater in B.C., the middle class tax cut, killing the capital gains tax hike, reducing immigration levels, scrapping EV mandates, bail reform and cutting the GST for new home buyers were all ideas first proposed by Poilievre and the Conservatives.

As Poilievre himself put it: “We think our role in this parliament is to put forward good ideas and so my message to Mr. Carney is: ‘Steal our best ideas,’ work with us, let’s get it done, let’s put our country first, who cares who gets the credit?”

That’s what the official opposition should be doing, which too many backstabbing and disloyal Conservative MPs have forgotten.

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