Big pivot for B.C.: Reaction to David Ebys carbon tax announcement [Video]

BC NDP leader David Eby announced on Thursday that his government would scrap the carbon tax for consumers if the federal government dropped the requirement for the provinces to keep the tax in place.

“It’s a big pivot for British Columbia, for the province which led in establishing carbon pricing in Canada back in 2008,” Kathryn Harrison, a professor of political science at the University of British Columbia said.

“That was under the Liberals for the B.C. government, which was the only province, Canada-wide, that backed the federal government up at the Supreme Court of Canada, arguing that the federal backstop was necessary and constitutional and they won.”

A few months ago, Eby dismissed a letter from federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre asking him to help halt a federal carbon price increase as a “baloney factory” campaign tactic.

“I don’t live in the Pierre Poilievre campaign office and baloney factory,” said Eby on March 16.“I live in B.C., am …