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The show then morphed into a satire of the courtroom procedural. In response to a legal challenge of the stickers as misleading and partisan, the Ford government\u2019s expert witness claimed that Ontarians are too stupid to grasp anything more complicated than a bumper sticker slogan. <\/p>\n\n
His testimony<\/a> argued that it was reasonable to show the cost of the carbon tax at the pump, but omit the fact that the money is returned to consumers through rebates because \u201cit is costly for individuals to absorb or to learn information. A sticker with ever-more information inexorably will prove to be less informative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Cue the narrator voice-over informing viewers that this was not, in fact, a winning argument. <\/p>\n\n Dig a little deeper into who the government picked as their expert witness \u2014 the American Enterprise Institute\u2019s Benjamin Zycher \u2014 and you have the makings of a gritty political drama. <\/p>\n\n At first glance, it looks like a terrible casting decision. Zycher is well-known as a defender<\/a> of President Trump\u2019s claim that climate change is a hoax. He is a featured speaker<\/a> at this year\u2019s Heritage Foundation conference that advertises itself<\/a> as being for those \u201cwho are brave enough to publicly tell the truth about the CLIMATE DELUSION.\u201d <\/p>\n\n He is the guy you hire when you want someone to argue that<\/a> governments shouldn\u2019t even try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions because \u201cthere is no \u2018consensus\u2019 among scientists about climate science\u201d and \u201copposition to fossil fuels is fundamentally antihuman.\u201d<\/p>\n\n But as the drama unfolds, this season\u2019s story arc begins to take shape. The Ford government publicly claims that they accept climate science, but has dabbled in denial before \u2014 most prominently when Ontario Energy Minister Greg Rickford cited a blog that denies the basic science of climate change as \u201cone of his favourite periodicals<\/a>\u201d while defending the Ford government\u2019s cancellation of renewable energy contracts.<\/p>\n\n This added a note of poetic justice to the court\u2019s decision<\/a>, which used Minister Rickford\u2019s own words (\u201cwe\u2019re going to stick it to the Liberals and remind the people of Ontario how much this job-killing regressive carbon tax costs\u201d) to rule that the gas pump stickers were unconstitutional. <\/p>\n\n The question remains: why hire Zycher to defend the sticker legislation as non-partisan? He is a hyper-partisan figure, even in American conservative circles, as much of his recent work involves publicly denouncing<\/a> Republicans who dare to even propose climate policies. <\/p>\n\n The answer lies in understanding why he attacks fellow conservatives for going soft on climate. Zycher\u2019s concern is that for conservatives to admit that climate change is a problem that can be solved \u201cis to lose the game, and much more, immediately\u2026. We cannot defeat climate alarmism and the fundamental threat to freedom that it represents unless we defend first principles. In the context of climate policy, watchful waiting and adaptation over time is the only sensible approach consistent with them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n This is where you realize the political drama is becoming a disaster movie. Watchful waiting is code for doing nothing to try to prevent future warming by reducing our reliance on fossil fuels. Adaptation, in this context, means ensuring the rich can move to higher ground and put up walls to keep out those who have been displaced by rising sea levels, extreme storms or hunger due to drought-destroyed crops. <\/p>\n\n Watchful waiting and adaptation is the Ford government\u2019s true climate policy. It is why they gutted Ontario\u2019s former climate plan<\/a>, used the pandemic as cover<\/a> to weaken even more environmental laws, and are challenging<\/a> the federal government\u2019s carbon tax in court. <\/p>\n\n That is why the sticker saga is ultimately a tragedy. Denying the climate crisis won\u2019t make it go away. This story needs new writers, and that is up to you and me.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n