Not unexpectedly, the federal government extended their federal gas excise tax “holiday” for several more months as an “affordability measure,” and then sent out MPs and parliamentary secretaries to pat themselves on the back for it. And the rhetoric is just so braindead. “Image waking up on Tuesday and having to pay ten cents more per litre,” Ryan Turnbull said on Power & Politics by way of justification, and well, yes, that’s what happens when a tax holiday expires. Prices go back up. So unless you plan to keep extending said “holiday” to the point where it’s no longer a holiday but merely a removed excise tax in all but name, then the price will have to go up eventually, and of course you’re going to have to swallow the hit when it happens. And there has also been no mention about the lost revenues from this excise tax and how the particular envelopes of funding that it goes toward will not suffer, while the federal deficit continues to climb. Is Carney laying off civil servants and cutting programmes solely for people to get cheaper gasoline? If so, he should just say so.
Meanwhile, Pierre Poilievre took to social media to take credit for this holiday extension, but of course, it’s not good enough because he is still calling for the destruction of the industrial carbon price (which is not relevant here), and for the clean fuel standard (which is not a tax, and any dollar figures associated with it were mere projections of what it might cost refineries to meet this standard). On the one hand, he’s trying to claim victory for pushing on an open door, which is sad in and of itself. On the other hand, he’s being an obsequious pick-me after his party’s abysmal performance in Monday’s by-elections, so much so that they only came in second in one of those ridings. Nevertheless, we can expect more of this “Conservatives won this round!” back-patting for the weeks to come, while he continues to make more demands to simply destroy all environmental legislation under the most ridiculous pretences possible.
My Latest:
My column points to data showing average income declines in Alberta, and whether the Remain campaign can actually be honest about them or just play into separatist hands.
Ukraine Dispatch:
Russia’s ongoing attacks on Kyiv were in their seventh day, wounding at least eleven people, while they again struck Odesa, including residential buildings.
Noteworthy:
- Vass Bednar sounds the alarm about the death of Google search, and calls for a concerted effort to set up domestic avenues to preserve digital knowledge.
- Erin Durant raises some serious questions about the business case for the Alto high-speed rail project.
- Anne Applebaum details the witch hunt in the Trump administration against the fictional “censorship industrial complex” that has damaged US foreign policy.
Anybody interested in the Canadian government's proposed social media ban for young people (which should be everybody) should pay attention to this.
— David TS Fraser (@privacylawyer.ca) 2026-09-03T00:30:30.176Z
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