A surprise revelation from the NDP leadership contender is the carbon tax

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Rakhi Pancholi is not entering the NDP leadership race with the usual splash. Its opening looks like a cannon shot from a high tower.

Edmonton MLA says it's time to ditch the consumer carbon tax.

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You're not hallucinating, he said something no NDP caucus member has said in public before.

“We need to recognize that we haven't brought the public with us on this issue, and maybe it's time to move away from consumer carbon pricing and focus more on things that work, like industrial carbon pricing and other measures,” he said. he told Ryan Jespersen on his Real Talk video show.

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With about 70 percent of Albertans opposed to the tax, he said, it's time to consider an Alberta-made solution that “might not include a consumer carbon tax.” I think this is the reality we have to look at.

“I've had a lot of conversations with our province's leading climate activists, experts in the field, and we need to continue to have those conversations, how does this climate plan work without a price on carbon consumption?”

Pancholi makes his proposal only after Jagmeet Singh's federal NDP caucus member for Ontario, Charlie Angus, introduced a bill that would have jailed anyone who supports oil and gas.

Pancholi's first campaign video features him talking proudly about Alberta industry.

Now he is questioning the basis of national climate policy, the carbon consumption tax.

The Alberta NDP desperately needs a divorce from Singh's party.

Pancholi's view is not without support among Alberta's New Democrats.

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The federal tax has disappeared everywhere since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau freed up home-heating oil, a relief mostly in Atlantic Canada.

Leader Rachel Notley said Albertans heating with natural gas should be exempted immediately.

Liberals stuck to their decision, but raw political favoritism undermined the entire premise of the tax as an apolitical weapon against climate change.

Now the New Democrats have taken a giant leap, risking comparisons with conservatives who have called for abolition.

Pancholi is the second candidate to replace Notley. Calgary MLA Kathleen Ganley started earlier this week. Sarah Hoffman, another Edmontonian, is set to announce on Sunday.

Hoffman and Ganley were both elected in 2015 and served in Notley's cabinet — Hoffman as health minister and deputy prime minister, Ganley as justice minister.

Pancholi first won the 2019 election in the riding of Edmonton-Whitemood, where the NDP lost badly.

It is not tied to previous NDP policies, including the provincial carbon tax they brought in during the 2015 campaign, which they won.

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Pancholi's move is the first clear sign of a movement away from Notley's legacy.

But how can the NDP, even if it wins, get rid of the federal consumption carbon tax in Alberta?

There is only one way. They had to convince Ottawa to accept Alberta's emissions program, which came tax-free.

In fact, the whole problem comes back to zero.

After winning in 2019, the UCP immediately suspended the NDP's climate regime.

Prime Minister Jason Kenney's government could develop its own provincial plan and get approval from Ottawa.

But they didn't, and Ottawa introduced a federal tax that has since become a boondoggle.

Now the tax is a campaign goal for the New Democrats.

But Pancholi isn't giving up on climate activism or the fight against Prime Minister Daniel Smith's government.

The UCP, he says, “doesn't want to do any of the work needed to tackle climate change. They just want to fight.

“I'm saying we need to come up with a plan with climate activists (and) industry experts to come up with a plan that says: OK, what are we going to do going forward that's proactive and not reactive?” ?

“Because we can't wait any longer.”

If Pierre Poulevre's Conservatives win next year, there will be no carbon tax at all when the next provincial election comes in 2027.

In this case, it's all just wind, but a strong wind coming from the NDP.

Don Braid's column appears regularly in the Herald.

X: @DonBraid

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