If Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre intends to make carbon pricing a key issue of the next federal election, a local Liberal MP has one simple message for the opposition.
"Bring it on," said Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP Marcus Powlowski.
Earlier this week, Poilievre spoke with Dougall Media, where he criticized Powlowski and fellow local Liberal MP Patty Hajdu for Northwestern Ontario residents not having carbon pricing on other home heating fuels like natural gas and propane paused after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had announced a three-year hold on the tax being applied to the cost of home heating oil.
“What about people in Thunder Bay?” Poilievre asked during that media availability which had been extended at the invitation of the party. “Thunder Bay is cold, as you know, and the Liberal MPs have failed to give Thunder Bay residents an exemption or a pause on their natural gas and propane heat.
“Why is it that Patty Hajdu and Marcus Powlowski have not gotten the same carve out for Thunder Bay that Justin Trudeau has offered other Canadians in the east?”
Poilievre insists he will "axe the tax" if he becomes Canada's next prime minister.
For Powlowski, he's looking forward to discussing it on the campaign trail.
"I want to make it an election [issue]," he said. "I think for a lot of people, climate change is the number one electoral issue. Certainly for young people, it ought to be.
"It's going to affect how their world is going to look in five, 10, 20 years. I think young people, most young people, believe in climate change."
Both Powlowski and Hajdu disputed Poilievre's assertion that Thunder Bay residents were being treated unfairly by the government's decision to pause adding carbon pricing to home heating oil. They each said residents who rely on home heating oil pay more, even without that added cost, than those who use propane or natural gas.
Anyone in Northern Ontario using home heating oil will also see the carbon pricing paused, Hajdu added.
Hajdu, the Thunder Bay-Superior North MP, said that Poilievre "left out some really important pieces of the conversation," noting that the average Ontario family receives more in rebates than they pay in carbon pricing.
She also challenged Poilievre's implication that Northern Ontario Liberal MPs are not as effective as those representing ridings in the Atlantic provinces.
"I'm incredibly proud of the Northern Ontario caucus for the fights they've engaged in to make sure that Northern Ontario also gets recognized in the work of the government of Canada," Hajdu said, mentioning an "independent fully-funded FedNor" and spending in housing, infrastructure, and arts and culture.
"I'm extremely proud of my Northern Ontario colleagues for the advocacy they do. That's our job as politicians — to make sure that the very specific policy issues that specifically impact our region are heard."
