Premier Moe of Saskatchewan thinks the Canadian government's carbon tax is just an April fool's day ploy, he says. Charging a surtax for polluting the earth with carbon emissions is a joke, he seems to feel. His Conservative colleagues in Ontario, New Brunswick, and Manitoba have joined the chorus.

Fighting a tax is always a vote-getter. It takes no experienced pol to know that people vote for candidates who speak out against taxes. Look how Mike Harris got elected and his echo Doug Ford. And now Scheer wants to make this a federal song as well.

You'd almost think that taxes were a vice the way some people regard collecting enough money for a society to be civilized - that cares for the sick, provides the infrastructure for business to carry on, ensures that streets are safe, and makes sure that people don't die in poverty. But no, some seem to think that every dollar spent by government is wasted, while the money they contribute to big business is efficiently and effectively managed.

Check that out with the managers at SNC-Lavalin. Or do you really think the senior executives of the big corporations and banks are getting a just wage, paid with your dollars. Check out who is stashing their Canadians-earned cash in off-shore tax shelters to avoid contributing to the civilized society.

Well, politicians can play the game, but you do have to check your conscience at the door to play it - especially on the climate change file. They rail against "taxing" people for carbon pollution, but don't come up with any viable plan to reach the global community's goals for reducing the earth's warming.

No matter that climate change consequences have already cost billions in Canada; no matter that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change raised the alarm in its 2018 report:
  "Climate-related risks to health, livelihoods, food security, water supply, human security, and economic growth are projected to increase with global warming of 1.5 degrees Centigrade and increase further with 2 degrees C" and "populations at disproportionately higher risk of adverse consequences... include disadvantaged and vulnerable populations, some indigenous people, and local communities dependent on agricultural or coastal livelihoods" - no matter, we can get more tax-despisers voting for us in the next election. (citation in "Spacing", Winter 2-18/2019, p. 46 "Reducing Emissions by Being Better" by Pamela Robinson.)

Nice. It is not the purpose of politics to pander to people's prejudices and self-interest. They have a sworn duty to care for the province and nation they govern. Any responsible politician who speaks out against the "carbon-tax solution" had better have an alternative, effective, and achievable plan to prevent the cataclysms scientists predicts with the earth's warming. To not propose and advocate a viable climate change battle plan TODAY is a corruption of the purpose of political life and a matter of gross irresponsibility.

Some Christians seem to complement these politicians failure by advocating to "let armaggedon come. The Bible foretells it, so let's not block its happening." Blasphemy. It is human failure that is causing that end - not the Divine will which loves Creation and its creatures. In effect they are attribute to the Holy One their irresponsible stewardship of Creation and, in the process risk the lives of billions with their fatally flawed biblicistic thinking.

That doesn't seem to bother some pols. It should. The impact of their irresponsibility is to endanger lives of creatures, of the human family, and of the earth itself. People of faith know that it is urgently time to learn "to live with respect in [and for] Creation." They comprehend that we are in a time - like the time before World War II - when all life was threatened and required total engagement at high cost. They vanquished the danger. Will we?

For me as a person of faith, my vote in the coming elections will depend on whether politicians a simply playing the political game of trying to be be the first past the election poll, or whether they understand the current threat to life and are willing to engage with all the levers of power and the resources required to restore peace in Creation.

Climate change is no game. It is a deadly serious matter requiring governments that hope and act for the well-being of ALL.