The carbon tax convoy hasn’t learned a thing

If at first, you don’t succeed in overthrowing the government, try, try again. That appears to be the thinking behind the carbon tax protests that popped up across the country on April 1, which involved many of the same people who wanted the federal government replaced over its COVID-19 measures in 2022. Alas, the organizers behind this latest iteration of the convoy still haven’t learned how our country and its democracy actually works.

Karl Douville, who helped operate the Coventry Road base camp during the 2022 occupation of downtown Ottawa, held a press conference last week to outline the carbon tax convoy’s concerns. In it, he suggested that “in a true democratic society, people have the right to vote on … matters that impact every aspect of their lives and their livelihoods.” We’ve now had two federal elections that revolved at least in part around the Liberal government’s carbon tax, of course, but Douville seems to think those no longer count. “Is it time for a referendum? Give Canadians a voice. Let them decide for themselves.”

Douville was joined by Robert Dorion, another veteran of the 2022 Ottawa encampment and a conservative activist who believes the Trudeau government isn’t behaving democratically. “When 386,000 Canadians signed the largest petition ever in Canada to resign or call elections, [Justin Trudeau] brushed it off. In my opinion, that’s not democracy.”

What he neglects to mention, of course, is that we’ve had multiple confidence votes in the House of Commons over the carbon tax and every single one of them has failed. A petition with the signatures of less than one per cent of the population does not carry the weight of, say, a federal election, and letting it trigger a national referendum would set an obviously destabilizing precedent.

As to their concerns about the carbon tax, they predictably lack any factual substance. When asked by a reporter what they would do differently on climate, Douville went off on a rambling tangent about the tax’s impact on our exports — despite the fact the federal system of output-based allocations is explicitly designed to shield exports from the tax and protect competitiveness. He also suggested that “we are the most environmentally clean country in the world, and we’re carbon-positive — we’re very, very well off, and we’ve very environmentally aware of our industries.”

Some of this incoherent word salad is a function of him operating in his second language, but most of it is a reflection of the fact they haven’t thought these issues through. Dorion, for example, suggested Quebecers like him have “been paying an environmental tax on fuel for a long time and it’s been hidden from us. We’re just learning about it.” That’s odd, given that there’s been a carbon price on fossil fuels in Quebec since 2007, and a cap-and-trade system covering 80 per cent of the province’s emissions since 2013. If people are just learning about it now, that’s probably on them.

On one level, there’s no need to take any of this seriously. The protests are really just thinly populated convoy reunions where the people who found meaning and community in their shared opposition to science and public health measures try to recapture some of that dubious magic. If a few dozen people want to gather by the side of the road and wave their anti-Trudeau flags at passersby, well, they’re welcome to fill their boots.

And for all their complaining about the lack of democracy and suggestions the prime minister in a minority Parliament is somehow a “tyrant,” they seem to have no problem getting their voices heard. This isn’t even the first time this year that the Parliamentary Press Gallery has been transformed into a kind of Speakers Corner for convoy grievance merchants, after all.

But let’s be clear: none of this is actually about the substance of the carbon tax, much less climate change, and it’s certainly not about respecting or upholding democracy. It’s about a small percentage of the population finding new ways to express their disdain — hatred, even — for Trudeau and the values he represents. If the carbon tax was repealed tomorrow, they’d attach their antipathy to some other issue or cause.

It might be tempting to think that this will all disappear if Trudeau and his government are defeated by Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives. Given how high the convoy lifers seem to get off their own supply, I find that a little hard to believe. Instead, they’ll find some other political bogeyman to chase, whether it’s at the federal, provincial or municipal level. Maybe they’ll even lean on Joe Biden if he wins re-election in November. For the convoy, the whole point now is to keep the trucks rolling indefinitely, no matter what those pesky facts might have to say. And, hey, if it increases their greenhouse gas emissions in the process? Well, all the better to them, I’m sure.