The carbon tax has arrived.

This week, the four provinces that refused to adopt carbon pricing plans of their own — Ontario, New Brunswick, Manitoba and Saskatchewan — are facing higher prices on gas, natural gas, home heating oil and propane. We'll pay about four cents per litre more at the pumps, along with five cents per litre more for home heating oil, just under four centres per cubic metre for natural gas and just over three cents a litre for propane.

Let's talk myths and realities.

MYTH: We're only paying this extra money because of Justin Trudeau. REALITY: Only true in part. We're being hit with the carbon tax because our provincial government didn't have its own plan to put a price on carbon. We had a perfectly good and working cap-and-trade system that would have allowed us to avoid the tax, but Doug Ford scrapped it, along with the millions in revenue it had generated that would have gone to schools, roads and community centres.

MYTH: The carbon tax will lead to a recession. REALITY: That's what Doug Ford said, but numerous economic experts have confirmed he's making that up. At worst, respected economists say, it might cause economic growth to slow modestly. And it might not even do that. British Columbia has had a carbon tax for more than 10 years and it has and continues to have one of the strongest economies in Canada.

MYTH: You don't need a carbon tax to fight climate change. REALITY: Maybe not, but you need something. Ford and Andrew Scheer are fond of saying we don't need the tax, but neither will say what we do need. Cap-and-trade is a valid option. But by saying they will kill the tax, what Ford and Scheer are really saying is they'll do nothing. And doing nothing about the biggest threat facing the planet and future generations cannot be an option.

MYTH: Ontarians support Doug Ford's stance on the environment. REALITY: The government did a poll after it released its own plan, which basically does nothing. The results: 45 per cent of respondents have a negative impression of the government on the environment, while 27 per cent had a positive impression.

MYTH: The carbon tax is an invention of Liberals, progressives and "the left." REALITY: Canadian conservative icon Preston Manning publicly supports a carbon tax. Former Alberta treasurer Jim Dinning supports the idea. Mark Cameron, former policy director for Stephen Harper, has said the Trudeau carbon tax plan is a "smart conservative policy." In America, four former heads of the U.S. reserve — Janet Yellen, Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan and Paul Volcker argue for a carbon tax in their country.

MYTH: Doug Ford is fighting the carbon tax for average Ontarians. REALITY: Ford has committed $30 million in public money to fight the tax in court, even though one of his own advisers, along with a host of constitutional legal experts, call it a "long-shot" almost certain to fail. And this week Ford announced an advertising blitz to condemn the tax — advertising paid for with public dollars. Who's taking money from your pocket?

MYTH: The tax will cost me hundreds every year. REALITY: The average Ontario household will spend about $244 annually because of the tax. The same household will receive $300 in federal tax rebates. Most Ontarians will end up with more money in the end.

Almost nobody likes new taxes.

But almost everyone agrees on the need to do something to mitigate climate change.

Right now, this is the best idea on the table, certainly better than other political leaders are putting forward.

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