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VICTORIA — When the price of gas in Metro Vancouver reached $1.50 a litre, NDP MLA Mike Farnworth rounded up 25 supporters and protested outside a Port Coquitlam gas station in his riding, demanding the government scrap the carbon tax because it was adding 2.4 cents a litre to the price at the pump.

“I’d say about three-quarters of the people driving by were leaning on their horns and shouting encouragement out the window,” Farnworth said.

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That was 2008.

Then, a furious NDP Opposition called for an end to the carbon tax to give motorists a break, while a dismissive Liberal government claimed the tax was a minor cost to help combat climate change and save the environment.

Eleven years later, in 2019, the parties have reversed positions and stands on the carbon tax.

The Opposition Liberals have twice attacked the carbon tax in the past month, using the same rhetoric as the NDP did about unfair surcharges against working-class British Columbians to call for temporary reductions or cancellations of the tax. The first time was when gas prices in the Lower Mainland reached more than $1.70 last month. The second was this month as financial relief for B.C. forest companies announcing mill closures, curtailments and job losses.