Hot air about carbon tax at H-N election debate

J.P. Antonacci

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Is the carbon tax dead and buried, or merely sleeping?

In Haldimand-Norfolk, it depends who you ask.

For a few minutes on April 10, the carbon-tax election that Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre had long pushed for played out on the debate stage in Simcoe. 

“The affordability crisis has been exacerbated by the carbon tax,” Conservative incumbent Leslyn Lewis told the packed Legion hall, arguing surcharges for fuel used on farms turned into higher food prices for consumers.

“The carbon tax was addressed by (new Liberal leader) Mark Carney within the first week, and it’s been cancelled. So I don’t know why you keep referring to it, Ms. Lewis,” retorted Liberal candidate Colin Walsh, a schoolteacher in Simcoe.

“The carbon tax has not been cancelled — it has been temporarily reduced to zero,” Lewis shot back.

“It can only be cancelled by an Act of Parliament. Please do not fall for the trap. It will be increased after the election by the same Mark Carney.”

Cancelling the consumer carbon tax immediately lowered gas prices by 18 cents, Walsh said, noting Carney also cut taxes on middle-class families soon after he was sworn in as prime minister.

“These aren’t slogans. These are tangible savings when families are stretched thin,” Walsh said. “That’s what leadership in a crisis looks like.”

But Lewis said the savings at the pump could have been there all the time had the Liberals abandoned the policy sooner.

“That goes to show how much the Liberal government has been gouging you over the years,” she told the crowd, promising a Conservative government would “permanently eliminate” both consumer and industrial carbon pricing.

“We have to protect the environment,” said NDP candidate Shannon Horner-Shepherd, a steelworker at Stelco’s Lake Erie Works in Nanticoke.

“We’re watching (climate change) happen in real time,” Horner-Shepherd said, pointing to milder winters, widespread flooding and longer wildfire seasons.

Green Party candidate Nathan Hawkins said without clean waterways, soil and air, Canadians cannot grow crops and raise livestock.

Climate change is worsening, he said, “and we’re seeing the results of it now.”

“As a rural riding, Haldimand-Norfolk is on the front lines of climate change,” Walsh added. “From shoreline erosion to unpredictable crop seasons, our farmers and families are feeling it.”

He said the Liberal climate plan focuses on increasing the use of green building materials and technology, boosting renewable energy, building “climate-resilient infrastructure” and supporting farmers.

“We’re just caretakers for the next generation,” he said.

“My opponent has voted against every meaningful climate measure and offers no vision for how to protect our farmland and our future.”

Taxing carbon-producing industries is meant to encourage companies and consumers to switch to renewable energy in the name of a cleaner world.  But Lewis called carbon pricing a cash cow.

Liberals “don’t have an environmental plan, they only have a tax plan,” she said.

“They have used the environment as a means to generate revenues through taxes.”

Lewis noted Canada was ranked 62 out of 65 counties in the 2025 Climate Change Performance Index, which assesses countries’ greenhouse gas emissions, energy use and climate policy. “The Conservative government will focus on technology, and not taxes, and help to address real, serious environmental challenges,” Lewis said.

“We will get rid of the carbon tax, and we will make sure that we focus on protecting the environment, but it’s not done on the backs of farmers and hardworking Canadians. We will implement environmentally sustainable policies that will not hurt our economy.”

However, Greenpeace Canada has said the Conservative environmental plan essentially leaves lowering greenhouse gas emissions up to the provinces and prioritizes building pipelines and resource extraction.

Henry Geissler, running for the People’s Party of Canada, suggested “environmentalists have convinced government to bring in all kinds of regulations to hinder our development.”

Lily Eggink of the Christian Heritage Party suggested more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could result in a longer growing season for farmers.

Voters go to the polls April 28.

- JP Antonacci is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based at the Hamilton Spectator. The LJI initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.