The NDP is fighting the wrong fight in BC...

Ever since the implementation of B.C.'s controversial (but very necessary) carbon tax in July of 2008 by the Liberal government of Premier Gordon Campbell, the opposition NDP party has been voraciously opposed. The leader of B.C.'s NDP party, Carole James, even adopted the wonderfully memorable "axe-the-tax" phrase to complement her campaign.

She, and the rest of the NDP in B.C. are still at it. This is a fatal mistake.

From an environmental point of view, a carbon tax is a good thing. It works a lot better than other measures currently in use by Canadian governments and it is arguably (and I'd argue in favour of it) more useful than a cap-and-trade system. Unfortunately, it's a very large political risk. You can easily upset a greater wealth of voters who will be negatively affected (albeit relatively marginally and shortly) by the tax. 

Putting forth such a tax makes a party as vulnerable as a duck already cooking itself (never mind the need to catch it) and opposition parties are bound to have a bite. Unfortunately, the wrong party is doing the biting. 

Last week, the NDP released their party platform, which revolves around eliminating the carbon tax. The NDP should be supporting the carbon tax, rather than demanding it be burned at the stake.

The NDP's position is simply political. By attacking the tax, they might buy votes. But in the long run, they'll just lose them. Gary Mason's piece in the Globe & Mail outlines this argument in detail (he beat me to the punch, despite my having started writing this post a day before his publication. I suppose it is what I get for watching episodes of Lost online...).

The NDP has often been the party of the marginalized. If you take a look at Canada, there's a lot of different people with a lot of different problems. Unfortunately, the NDP continues to try to solve everyone's problems at once. Do the math and you quickly realize that much of it becomes a zero-sum game: you help some, but hurt others.

Despite growing up in one of the most pro-NDP provinces and having been raised among the strong NDP faithful, the NDP has been falling in my books for quite some time. Getting rid of the tax is another step in the wrong direction.

The NDP (both federally and provincially in B.C.) should follow the new mantra of the Leafs. Get rid of the underachieving, overpaid old guys, pick up some promising young blood and hire Brian Burke.