Liberal Arrogance and the Environment – Freedom Philosophy

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NAFTA environment

Very few issues will highlight the nature of the Liberal Party more clearly and forcefully than their environmental policies. The first is the intensity of their virtue signaling. They talk about their environmentalism but in reality, they subsidize fossil fuel companies seven times more than they subsidize green tech companies.

With international organizations concerned about the environment, they propose various green initiatives, but their actual practice is the utter disregard for the impact of greenhouse gas emissions. It’s akin to the relative that goes on about helping the poor but they themselves never lift a finger, they expect others to do the work they propose. Liberals expect to be viewed as environmentalists because they talk as though they are but fail on deliverables.

To their environmental credit, they have initiated an 11-year program that invests $4.5 billion into green tech companies. The hurdle to overcome for the Liberals is their track record. There’s a silence from evidence to suggest any of their ministers have experience in successful green-tech investing. It’s a notably difficult industry to navigate its turbulent waters; many investment experts have had trouble making returns. Their task is to identify sound residual cash flows within a burgeoning industry or potential technological advancements from companies managed by individuals with a solid history of execution success. I don’t see the competence there.

Green tech is an interesting field. We live in an exciting time where people can refinance their house, or purchase a house and add improvements through the mortgage, for alternative energy like solar panels and avoid paying a power bill; it’s a remarkable opportunity.

We never again have to pay at the pump for increasingly cost-effective electric cars.

Herein lays the second issue that reveals their general attitude. They believe in themselves more than their abilities suggest they ought to. The Liberals wish to take our money and give it to environmental companies they believe in, when it would be far more efficient and cost-effective for us to keep our money and buy environmental products that suit our needs.

If they wished, they could incentivize this through tax deductions and credit, making interest on environmentally friendly mortgages refinances a tax write-off, or interest on an electric car could become a tax write-off.

When the government makes a decision on which companies can help they may or may not be wasting money, there are winners and losers. When consumers make such decisions the company is making a sale – both the consumer and companies benefit; there are only winners. It’s far more efficient for the free market to make these decisions rather than the government. It would also have the actual end result of reducing carbon emissions.

The contrast is clear. Trudeau is of the opinion that he has the capacity to make such decisions. He believes he knows better than consumers do about their own needs and he believes that he knows better than the most successful company managers do within the industry. This is unparalleled hubris, a level of arrogance that completely detracts from his ability to lead.

The arrogant virtue signaling, the non-accomplishing incompetence is the highest unfolding of the Trudeau mindset.

He talks about environmentalism, about innovation, about upholding our international agreements while delivering subsidies for fossil fuel. He claims he can invest in innovation without having the credentials to do so. Talk is high, successful action is low, welcome to Trudeau’s Canada.

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Brandon Kirby

Brandon Kirby has a philosophy degree from the University of New Brunswick and is a current MBA candidate finishing his thesis. He is an AML officer specializing in hedge funds in the Cayman Islands, owns a real estate company in Canada, and has been in the financial industry since 2004. He is the director of Being Libertarian - Canada and the president of the Libertarian Party of Canada.

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