Québec solidaire has come to terms with last fall’s defeat. It was the easiest step.
Now we have to find a way to overcome the orange tax problem. And those who think it’s just a matter of communication, of the complexity of the proposal, think again.
The reluctance of the voters seems rather philosophical.
QS is right in its proposal to tax energy-intensive vehicles and encourage urban densification. The problem is that Quebecers are rowing in the opposite direction.
Always bigger, bigger
In thirty years, the number of vehicles has grown twice as fast as the population.
For what ? Let’s bet on urban sprawl driven by the quest for space. Living space has increased by 22% in 30 years.
But does a pick-up, van or SUV really only need 12,000 km per year?
It seems so! The craze of being behind the wheel of your SUV in traffic is so great that it is predicted that the traditional car will disappear by 2028!
The problem is that we’re shooting ourselves in the foot.
Massive efforts have been made to reduce oil and energy consumption. But the profits have been swallowed up in big engines and bigger homes.
This data was compiled in HEC’s latest 2023 report, The State of Energy in Quebec. The authors refer to our collective “energy drunkenness”.
Obviously we don’t want to reduce our energy consumption.
Even Energy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon’s rather benign idea of using the dishwasher or doing the laundry late at night has robbed voters of their hair!
QS needs more than a simplified version of its orange tax to persuade voters to go green.
But we already knew that.
