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For them, it’s the equivalent of an accidental tax break. The oil crisis, whatever else it may be doing, is giving a break to the one set of people all the political parties should be most sympathetic to, and whom they laud with pieties on every occasion. So here’s a time to act out the pieties, and make sure this little bonus stays with the people who need it most.

But will it? Already in Ontario we are hearing from politicians, “well, now is a great time to put on a carbon tax.” I beg furiously to differ. These politicians and warmist campaigners have no soul. Can you not leave Lincoln’s “common man ” alone? Just once? Please? Can you not, just one time, allow a little of the benefit to flow down and let those who most need and appreciate some small break have that break? Must their one parade be rained on?

It does not matter, of course, to politicians, or those with high incomes, or the protest lobby funded by foundations large and small, what the price of gas is. That crowd can fold the price into expense accounts or toodle by on their morally superior bicycles. It does matter to everyone else, to their neighbours, to immigrants toiling in the bleak ranges of 12-hour-a-day jobs, to the hardscrabble workers.

Mark this as well: If governments federal or provincial — for this will go beyond Ontario — hit gas with a tax now that prices are conveniently low, you may be sure, as fate is sure and death is certain, that they will keep them when the price, as it will, goes up again.

“Please, sir, I want some more,” famously pleaded sad famished young Oliver Twist. He was only asking for an extra dollop of grim-tasting porridge. I’d guess the millions who do the hard work of this county understand the young Mr. Twist’s mournful plea. They don’t plead, but it would be nice if our leaders, our political parties and the various anti-industry causes that own the public debate would keep quiet and leave these people, for once, alone.

National Post