Canada’s carbon tax is the issue that just won’t go away. Pierre Poilievre’s recent motion to put a pause on the tax was defeated despite him having the NDP on his side for once.

The vote eventually came down to just one party, which chose to side with Trudeau in his plan to divide Canada. Those “Separatists” as Poilievre called them, might soon realize they chose the wrong side, as Premiers across Canada are now joining hands against Trudeau’s carbon tax.

With Trudeau rapidly losing allies, one might wonder when he will finally wake up and see how his policies are damaging the Canada we know and love.

But the time for remediation has passed, as Trudeau is facing opposition from all sides.

The motion to ax the tax may have been defeated this time, but the carbon tax fight will be taken to the voters in the next election

So why did the Bloc Québécois vote against the motion?

The motion from Pierre Poilievre to pause carbon taxes on all home heating, unfortunately, was voted down on Monday’s question period, with the final count being 186 against it to only 135 in favor. Pierre’s motion ultimately aimed to extend the carbon tax break that 3% of the population already gets for home heating oil, to other types of home heating as well. It’s a pretty reasonable request, right? But unfortunately, it didn’t get the support it needed.

While the motion wouldn’t have actually forced the government to change anything, as it wasn’t a formal requirement, that kind of majority support might have created some real political pressure for the government to reconsider. But the Bloc killed the motion by deciding to side with the Liberal party.

The Liberals have enough seats on their own, at 158, to outvote the Conservatives and NDP combined. Those two parties announced beforehand that they’d be joining forces to back Pierre’s motion, but together, they still only had 142 seats. This meant the Bloc Quebecois were pretty much the swing vote Poilievre needed, with their 32 seats. Whoever they decided to side with would win the vote. 

But in the end, they threw their support behind Trudeau and the Liberals instead of lending their votes to the opposition. So even with the Conservatives and NDP paired up, it wasn’t enough to pass the vote. The Bloc’s backing was crucial, and rather than defending Canadians from the carbon tax, they used their power to defeat Pierre’s common sense proposal.

Even the NDPs, who are more often than not at the conservative’s throats, saw that Poilievre’s motion was logical and, unlike Trudeau’s divisive policies, was actually aimed at the benefit and equity of all Canadians.

NDP MP Peter Julian stated that “The motion today is for once not a crazy climate denying motion. It just refers to the equity of ensuring that all types of home heating and in all regions actually can benefit from that.”

When defending his party’s decision to back the proposal, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, who voted virtually, told reporters that while he was reluctant, his party voted “yea” to reject the Liberals’ approach. He said, “We reject absolutely the Liberals’ divisive plan. We think it’s unfair. It pits regions against each other, and so we’re voting to reject the Liberal’s divisive plan.”

After the vote, in a press conference outside the House of Commons, Poilievre referred to the Bloc Québécois as “Separatists” and Trudeau’s “Carbon tax coalition” who signed on with Trudeau to divide Canadians into two separate classes.

So why did Quebec vote against the motion? Well, it might be because they have a special deal on the carbon tax of their own, while the rest of the provinces pay 14 cents per litre of gas, Quebec has its own cap-and-trade system, which allows them to pay about 10 cents per litre of gas.

A week before the vote, BQ Leader Yves-François Blanchet delightfully expressed that he’s “so glad this tax, whatever the Conservatives say, does not apply in Quebec.”

So more than anything Quebec’s vote was merely symbolic, as Blanchet expressed, the motion would have “no impact on Quebec”

But instead of voting with the conservatives and the NDPs, Blanchet decided to join hands with Trudeau to further divide Canada. 

“The environment is not a fancy thing that you entertain between crises,” Blanchet said. “It is in and by itself a very important issue, and we have to be constant and patient and determined in those matters,” Blanchet stated.

The question many of you might be wondering is, would the Bloc have voted differently if the same federal tax that is imposed on the rest of the provinces was imposed on them, too?

That seems highly unlikely, as premiers across Canada have joined hands in criticizing Trudeau’s carbon tax. As Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said, “The carbon tax is not the silver bullet when it comes to climate change”.

Premiers representing all provinces got together at a news conference in Halifax on Monday, and all except for two, said Trudeau should extend his carbon price exemption to all home heating fuels, not just heating oil. The people have clearly spoken at this point and the near unanimous outcry from Premiers across Canada should be loud enough to make Trudeau’s liberal government set aside politics for once and do what’s right for Canada.

But of course, they are too deaf to hear common sense at this point. 

Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault coldly responded to the premiers’ calls for changes by telling the Canadian Press that no other changes would be made to the federal carbon pricing system under his watch.

“As long as I’m the Environment Minister, there will be no more exemptions to carbon pricing,” he said.

The words of Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe come to mind when we see the minister’s harsh response to Canada’s Premiers. As Moe previously said, his province’s relationship with Ottawa under Trudeau has clearly become “combative” rather than “collaborative”.

Federal-provincial relations, after almost a decade of Trudeau, are nearing a breaking point. This unprecedented level of disconnection shows the damage Trudeau has done.  Yet he doesn’t even show up to question period as MPs vote on such a critical matter, he instead “hides and divides,” as Poilievre said.

In response to Poilievre criticizing Trudeau’s absence, Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, retorted evasively that Poilievre was the one hiding, and that he had no real plan for the climate. 

Then why is Poilievre the one standing in the House of Commons doing his job while Trudeau is nowhere to be seen? 

Contrary to Wilkinson’s misleading diversion, Poilievre has proved over and over again that he has a better plan for the climate than Trudeau’s divisive, far-reaching one. 

Although the vote on Monday ended in defeat for conservatives, it’s not the end of this issue as more and more Premiers and MPs will likely join forces against Trudeau and his Liberals to “ax the tax.”