Empathy is admirable
RE: Kieran Report, Liberals need to axe the carbon tax, July 12-18
Though I agree with your political observations that the gas tax is a heavy-handed and possibly misguided way of trying to decrease British Columbia's fossil-fuel emissions, I take some umbrage with the rest of your article. Which I'm sure you expect, because it is, after all, an opinion piece.
Although you're probably not the only person to do this, calling the gas tax a "carbon tax" is somewhat misleading, and ends up in your article reading more that a broad tax on all industries related to fossil fuel production and consumption is a bad idea, rather than just the gas tax. That being said, in the grand scheme of gas prices, 6.7 cents per liter is not that much — only around five per cent of the actual cost of gas. When compared to the overall trend of gas prices going up, it is obvious that the "carbon tax" is not responsible for the totality of the increase.
Perhaps your next article should focus on the fact that having an expensive, highly engineered machine for simple transportation is a luxury, not a right, or even a necessity.
Although some vehicle transportation and even commuting is unavoidable, the vast majority of trips that people take are achievable without a car. Most people do not realize this — whether it's through stupidity, laziness, or a combination of both, it is useless to get up in arms about something that doesn't have to be a problem.
Your empathy for "the lower classes" and the supposedly exorbitant prices they pay for a valuable commodity to run their expensive, sophisticated machines is admirable, but it sounds too much like an excuse for you to vent about something that is an irritating splinter in the well-manicured hand that is your life.
Oliver Terry,Vancouver Island