Thoughts on the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

 The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is a group I have followed for a number of years and recently have grown tired of their useless rhetoric, talking points and their complete inability to weigh trade-offs when it comes to taxes. Maybe the organization has changed over the years. Maybe it was always like this and I never noticed until certain issues have come up.

Carbon Tax

The issue that sort of gets me the most is their position on the carbon tax. They're no carbon tax, but in a contextless way. I've gone into this in detail on my thoughts on climate change. I've thought of a pretty good analogy on this part to describe how I view them.

Suppose an organization is against the war in Afghanistan. No matter what, they just shout 'no war'. They'll use any rhetoric they can to say that 'no war for oil', 'no war for Halliburton' or whatever. The issue I have is that this organization cryptically holding back a specific ideological intention. Let's say this organization is an ideological pacifist. So they believe in no violence, not even for self-defense. One thing is an organization saying 'I'm against all war and all violence" rather than "I'm against THIS war." This organization that cloaks such an intention end up morally cornering themselves in odd ways. What I mean by that is say we're in a political climate that most people and parties support the war in Afghanistan and we're going to war. This organization will not only be against it, but they'll also be against funding for resources and equipment for our troops. Even though our troops are already on the battlefield, they're still getting undermined.

If I were against the war, I'd make that clear - but if the troops are off in the battlefield I want them to have the best resources possible.

This is where I see the CTF at this time. It always screams 'no carbon tax', but that isn't enough. If the CTF is against fighting climate change, cool. That's a position where everyone can understand. But they play the position of being against the tax only. They quasi hold fighting climate change, provide no positive solution. What we find in a country with a political climate where all major parties want to fight climate change and meet the Paris targets, that we're not getting to the best solution.

And what I see is they're fighting the carbon tax in away that will see a much larger and more costly regulatory regime put in place.

Millennial/Trolling Style of Conversation