For months now, Pierre Poilievre has hammered the Liberal government with his familiar pledge to “axe” its carbon tax. That’s effectively what happened Thursday when the prime minister announced a three-year carbon tax exemption on home heating oil, a move clearly designed to placate restless voters in Atlantic Canada. Its communications around the carbon tax and rebate have been abysmal from the beginning, and this has allowed the merchants of doubt and disinformation to run riot around an already confusing subject. “Our government is delivering relief to Atlantic Canadians, rural Canadians, and people across the country who use home heating oil,” Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland tweeted. “Further, after telling Canadians for years that rebates covered the costs of the carbon tax for everyday consumers, the feds now admit with this one-region-one-fuel-type-only tax break, this claim is not true.”
