Valeriote contradicts Dion and Liberal ads

A word of advice to all Liberal candidates... before making grandious statements about the Carbon Tax, make sure you and your Party are on the same page.

Guelph Liberal candidate Frank Valeriote blew the lid on the Liberal Carbon Tax's "hidden agenda", by publicly contradicting his party and his own leader, Stephane Dion.

From Guelph Conservative Gloria Kovach's press release:

Frank Valeriote Confirms That The Green Shift is About Funding Liberal Promises
September 07, 2008

At the All-Candidates debate at the University of Guelph on September 4, 2008, Frank Valeriote answered a question about tackling poverty in Canada by saying that the Liberal Party’s proposed Green Shift plan is “as much a social program as it is an environmental plan.”

This confirms what Stephen Harper has been saying since Stéphane Dion launched his plan for “A Green Shift in Canada” in Ottawa on June 19, 2008.

The Green Shift consists of no environmental targets, three environmental strategies already being undertaken by the Federal Government, and seven social programs. Frank’s wrong – the Green Shift isn’t “as much a social program as it is an environmental plan”, it is more a social program than it is an environmental plan!

In November 2006, Dion said a carbon tax is “simply bad policy”. Valeriote publicly agreed with that statement until he changed his tune this summer. Frank’s admission that Dion’s Green Shift is “as much a social program as it is an environmental plan” explains why Dion changed his mind.

Now the Liberals need to reveal the whole truth about the Green Shift:

- It has no environmental targets because there is no effective way to measure if taxing Canadians’ behaviour will actually help reverse climate change.
- The government revenues it generates will fund social programs that most everyday Canadians will not be able to take advantage of.
- It will take at least four years to get a first assessment of whether it is revenue-neutral because the Auditor General works with historical, not current, data.
- The truth is that the Green Shift is about funding Liberal promises not at all about helping the environment.

For weeks, Mr. Dion has been trying to frame his "Green Shift"(TM) as an "environmental policy", and not the massive tax grab to fund their uncosted election campaign promises that it is. At the University of Guelph's all candidate's debate, Frank Valeriote revealed the truth of the matter, when he said, "The Green Shift will move $4 billion dollars... it's as much a social program as it's an environmental program... it will move $4 billion dollars down to the lower and middle income people, and that's important to realize".

Indeed Frank, that IS important to realize... that the "Green Shift"(TM) is not really about the environment, but it's about taking money from some Canadians who won't vote for you, in order to allow your party to redistribute it to where you think you can buy votes.

Folks, you can watch him here for yourself, thanks to the magic of YouTube:


Interesting, when taken in context with a Liberal press release from yesterday... "[the Green Shift] will have every dollar raised from carbon pollution go back into the pockets of Canadians through income tax cuts." Here's the question all voters need to consider... just who's pockets will your tax dollars be returned to? To yours, or to someone elses?

Of course, I'm not the only one to catch on to the apparent contradictions coming out of the Liberal campaign. National Post commentator Kelly McParland also noticed the apparent "shift" in campaign messaging in a Liberal press release today...

"A press statement issued with the ad declared that "every dollar raised from carbon pollution [will] go back into the pockets of Canadians through income tax cuts," which seems at odds with earlier promises to divert much of the money to a new poverty-fighting program. Has Mr. Dion changed his mind or did the Liberal war room just decide it wasn't a good time to mention all that new spending, since Mr. Dion has also been beefing that the Tories spend money far faster than the Liberals?"

The Liberals have been continually claiming that their Carbon Tax will be "revenue neutral". Liberal candidate Frank Valeriote is the first Liberal to finally admit that the Carbon Tax will move money from one Canadian's pocket, and put them in someone else's pocket.

That's certainly not very "revenue neutral" if you're someone like me, who doesn't stand to benefit at all from Mr. Dion's Carbon Tax... and I'm just one of the MILLIONS of Canadians who will be targeted under this new tax redistribution scheme.

Having read the plan, I can attest that it's not something that the average Canadian should consider supporting. And as such, I encourage everyone to vote such that the Carbon Tax WON'T be implemented... and that means NOT voting Liberal.