Article content continued

This week, going into the meeting of the premiers, the number of provinces supporting the Trudeau carbon tax looks like it’s down to five — or maybe even four. Soon it could be down to three.

A Liberal provincial government, under P.E.I. Premier Wade MacLauchlan, is now siding with conservative premiers in Ontario and Saskatchewan

Along with Saskatchewan and Doug Ford’s Ontario, Prince Edward Island has now said it will not accept Trudeau’s mandatory carbon tax. P.E.I.’s environment minister announced this month that his province “doesn’t require a tax to meet our targets” and so his government will instead be “fighting for Islanders” against one. That’s right: a Liberal provincial government, under P.E.I. Premier Wade MacLauchlan, is now siding with conservative premiers in Ontario and Saskatchewan in fighting Trudeau’s federally imposed carbon tax.

And in Newfoundland and Labrador another Liberal provincial government, led by Premier Dwight Ball, has yet to legislate a carbon tax. Newfoundland Minister of Environment Andrew Parsons had said in May that his government would not be rushed into passing a tax, and would do “what’s in the best interest” of Newfoundland. They wanted to wait, he said, to see what Ontario would do, first. They have their answer now.

There’s also Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister. You might remember he was in a rush to announce his own “made-in-Manitoba” carbon-tax plan a few months ago, albeit a less-expensive version than Trudeau’s, with a maximum tax of $25 per tonne of CO2, as opposed to Trudeau’s plan for an eventual tax of $50 per tonne.