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Instead, carbon tax disciples don’t seem too keen to boast about high gas prices. It’s almost as if they’re afraid it will make carbon taxes even more unpopular.

That seems to be the conclusion drawn by B.C. Premier John Horgan, who in recent weeks was musing about offering “relief” from high gas prices. That’s strange, since the B.C. NDP are big fans of carbon taxes. In fact, the B.C. government just jacked up the provincial carbon tax again on Apr. 1. Did no one tell the NDP that the very point of carbon taxes is to drive up prices? Were they not aware that high gas prices — or more accurately, high everythingprices — are not a bug, but a feature?

Indeed, when the B.C. Liberals first implemented the carbon tax in 2008, they promised it would stop rising at $30 per ton, be revenue neutral, and lead to a plethora of affordable alternative energies, all while reducing carbon emissions.

Ten years later none of those things are true.

Interestingly, now that they’ve had a chance to sober up on the opposition benches, the B.C. Liberals are throwing their lot in with embattled commuters, saying that provincial gas taxes are too high and they’re demanding relief too.

No average commuter family could be expected to absorb $3,600 in additional gasoline costs and not feel the hurt financially. But suddenly, carbon-tax cheerleaders don’t seem so keen on championing that pain in the wallet.

Scheer is simply pointing out the obvious: whatever their direct relationship to the carbon tax itself, high gas prices in B.C. are an expensive sneak preview of just the kind of future that the Trudeau government, with its rising carbon tax, wants for all Canadians. The government wants your gas to be more expensive, period. What carbon-tax advocates don’t want you to realize is that it will be just as unpleasant as what Vancouver drivers are dealing with now.

Kris Sims is the British Columbia director and Aaron Wudrick is the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.