72% ONTARIANS: CARBON TAXES ARE MONEY GRAB

    The online poll of 1,197 Ontarians didn’t just tell us carbon taxes are unpopular. It found 72 per cent of Ontarians think they’re just a government tax grab – even a majority of Liberal supporters said so; it also found 67.7 per cent think that carbon taxes are “a pointless symbolic gesture that will cost Ontarians a lot of money and do little for the world’s climate.”
    The carbon tax, a technical mechanism to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, is no longer a question of policy – in Ontario, at least, it’s a matter of faith. The Ipsos poll suggests Ontarians have lost faith.
Darrell Bricker, chief executive officer of Ipsos Public Affairs, noted polls regularly find a majority of Canadians are concerned about climate change. But now Ontarians are starting to equate climate issues with actually paying something. “That’s where the rub is coming in,” Mr. Bricker said. In Ontario, climate ranks far lower in voters’ concerns than hydro rates.
   Ontarians don’t seem to believe carbon taxes reduce emissions. Mr. Bricker said people don’t really see the effect, so they see it as tax grab.