I have some thoughts about this. Follow along if you like, friends.

https://twitter.com/rmohamed_yyc/status/1780383349615599856

First of all: it's abundantly clear to anyone without their ideological blinders on that the Liberals are a very long way from being "socialists". Socialists don't tend to put their faith in market-based solutions, for one thing (you know, the carbon tax).

Anyways. Onward.

There's a letter signed by almost all of Canada's best economists endorsing the carbon tax, but Conservatives like Dan (former CPC critic for climate change!) prefer to listen to this one retired professor.

Let's dig into why -- and what it really says about their position.

https://twitter.com/DanAlbas/status/1773928482256609424

First, about the professor. This isn't his first rodeo here.

It's an argument that just won't die. But let me try, briefly, to shovel some more dirt on it here.

No, Canada isn't going to be shipping LNG to Greece, and it has *zero* to do with the current federal government. A quick thread.

https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/1772760307183522169

For all the hand wringing about Canada "shrugging its shoulders" here, it's important to pay attention to what the Greek PM actually said: that his country "is very interested in obtaining LNG at competitive prices”.

Can we sell LNG into Europe at said prices? Absolutely not!

David Staples wrote a silly column and I'm afraid we have to unpack it. I'll try to make this as brief and painless as possible. #ableg #cdnpoli First: the notion that consumers are going to "revolt" over more EVs being brought to market is pure echo chamber stuff.

The average new vehicle purchased in Canada in 2023 cost $66,288. There are many EVs that fall well under that price point.

PS: they're getting cheaper.

It's the argument that just won't die: the best way for Canada to address climate change is by producing and exporting more fossil fuels.

I've tried to kill this thing any number of times, but it remains popular among conservatives.

Let's try again, shall we? #cdnpoli #ableg First, the background: here's a thread where I deal with the most common straw man arguments and obvious nonsense put forward by LNG enthusiasts.

https://twitter.com/maxfawcett/status/1565042632019316736

You know the campaign to sell Albertans on an Alberta Pension Plan is going poorly when they have to get the former finance minister to write an op-ed.

Let's have a look under the hood here, shall we? First, credit to whichever editor at Postmedia decided to post a video interview with Trevor Tombe right at the top of the piece.

Tombe, of course, doesn't buy any of what Toews is trying to sell in his op-ed.

I see you, mischievous layout editor.

Let's take a moment to pull apart @mrbinnion's piece about an APP for the Western Standard.

Don't worry: it won't take long. westernstandard.news/opinion/binnio… "The Canada Pension Plan, like so many federal programs, is a hidden transfer program. It effectively makes a fiscal transfer from Albertans to residents of other provinces."

Wrong!

I guess it's time for a thread about the proposed federal clean electricity regulations, since so many conservatives -- come on down, Danielle Smith -- seem determined to misrepresent what it actually contains.

Warning: this is going to get wonkish in a hurry. Sun Media's Lorrie Goldstein has described it as "a reckless plan to make it emissions free by 2035, 15 years ahead of the rest of the economy, which would lead to soaring prices and blackouts."

Set aside the fear-mongering and note the fundamental misunderstanding here.

I have a few questions about this column by Pamela Walling (@NoNonsensePW). calgaryherald.com/opinion/column… First, a fact check. We've been told by any number of conservative politicians and pundits that the Clean Fuel Standard, which kicks in on July 1st, would drive up gasoline prices. Lots of them were even filling up on June 30th in anticipation of a price spike.

Whoops.

At last, Alberta has a climate plan -- the first one since the NDP left office nearly four years ago.

We have a few things to discuss. #ableg So, here it is. It's buried on the government's homepage, below information about last month's budget, which tells you how important it thinks it is.

But it exists! That's progress. Credit where it's due.
alberta.ca/emissions-redu…

By popular request, and in the spirit of everyone being entitled to their own opinion but not their own facts, here's a quick review of Licia Corbella's appearance on @RealTalkRJ yesterday. I wasn't surprised that she dismissed Smith’s call with Artur Pawlowski and said it "didn’t really bother" her.

It is, of course, incredibly unlikely that she’d feel the same way if Rachel Notley was talked to an anti-pipeline activist who was charged with a crime, but….

There's a chart that keeps popping up on this hellscape, and it deserves a quick debunking.

It looks like this: The implication is obvious: the current government has racked up more debt than all previous ones combined. Which is true!

It's also silly. Here's why

We need to talk -- briefly! -- about this op-ed from Alberta's finance minister, @TravisToewsAB. edmontonjournal.com/opinion/column… You can (and will) be forgiven for not taking his op-eds seriously. After all, he wrote this last August, and now he's fully supportive of the Sovereignty Act.

I have a column coming about this on Wednesday, but apparently the latest Alberta freak out over the Just Transition needs a quicker corrective. A brief #ableg thread: Both Don Braid and David Staples are hyperventilating in their columns over a briefing note for the federal minister of natural resources last June. I expect this from Staples, but I thought Braid was better. Alas.

edmontonjournal.com/opinion/column…

Because some folks (hello, @diana_murphy613!) seem to need a reminder, here's a quick #cdnpoli thread about why "we can't afford it" isn't a good argument against federal childcare funding. First of all, the entire framing here is wrong. We don't have to choose. We can do all of these things -- and we should.

But of these, only one delivers a clear positive economic return to the federal treasury: childcare.

This is wrong on an almost impossibly large number of fronts, so it demands a thread. Grab an adult beverage if you like.

https://twitter.com/FreeAlbertaRob/status/1601335179372822528

First of all: I've asked Rob and any number of conservatives to explain to me how the Sovereignty Act would result in a single additional molecule of natural gas or barrel of oil being exported. They can't. Why? Because they know they have no argument there.

Time for a bit of an accountability thread. The other day, I shared a post from @BrentColman about the revenue generated by certain kinds of farming operations. It was a good post! You can find it here:

https://twitter.com/BrentColman/status/1600224357594583040

But as my rather obsessive interlocutor @ianhughscott pointed out, this data was for organic farming operations and producers of fruits/vegetables -- not wheat/grain.

These are crucial aspects of our food supply chain. But they are not representative of all farming operations.

It's official: LNG-mania is running wild among Canada's conservative politicians and pundits. Why, they keep asking, are we missing out on such a glorious opportunity to sell hydrocarbons to Europe -- and why won't the PM support it more vocally.

Here's why. A thread. First, the facts: Russia's invasion of Ukraine has sent European natural gas prices soaring. The UK, among other countries, is in for a very difficult winter. If we had LNG terminals on the US east coast, we'd be able to help.

But we'd need a Delorean for that.

So, I guess we have to talk about "Justin Trudeau's Climate Police".

Trust me, I don't want to do this. But in light of what happened in Grande Prairie on Friday, I think we have to. An #ableg and #cdnpoli thread: This theory, which was cooked up in one of the more fetid corners of the internet, takes a federal government plan to replace an Environment Canada office in Winnipeg and a job posting on Indeed and turns it into a nefarious plot to create a "climate police".

I know we're focused on who's in the convoy, but can we take a second to look at the central claim being pushed by the CPC -- that the vax mandate will cause shortages and higher prices?

How dumb, exactly, do they think the people running trucking companies are? Quick thread. We know that somewhere between 85-90% of truckers are vaxxed. Are we to believe that they can't reassign the other 10-15% to purely domestic routes (where no vax mandate applies) and keep cross-border flows intact?

Okay, it's time for a thread about this John Ivision column, because it does a bunch of things I can't abide.

Strap in.
nationalpost.com/opinion/john-i… Based on the photo here, I'm sure you can guess where this is going. If not, this graf gives it away.

"Canada’s competitiveness has been adversely impacted by fiscal and environmental policies that have reinforced the idea that projects cannot be built in this country."