Anti-carbon tax gas pump stickers prompt local pro-carbon tax campaign

The Ford government's anti-carbon tax stickers for gas pumps has helped spur a pro-carbon tax public information campaign that has some stickers of its own.

Ecology Ottawa is working with a collection of citizens and groups across the country to launch the campaign. The pro-carbon tax campaign will distribute stickers across the country, not only in Ontario, where the provincial government has mandated gas stations post anti-carbon tax stickers on its gas pumps.

“(The Progressive Conservative stickers] are a propoganda tool and they tell, essentially, one very biased side of the story,” Robb Barnes, executive director, Ecology Ottawa. He says the government's stickers make no mention of the tax rebate received at the beginning of the year by everyone who filed a tax return.

The campaign's website, CarbonTaxWorks.ca, shows some of their stickers available to be ordered, which include messages like, “We the North tax smokes and carbon,” “Tax carbon. Get refund. Save planet. Repeat.” As well as one sticker that says, “Don't F*CK with my kid's future.” In that sticker, the second letter of the second word is replaced with a trillium illustration, very similar to the new provincial logo.

“Waging a propoganda campaign against carbon pricing, as the provincial government currently is, is absolutely wreckless, and I think it's really important to get that word out,” Barnes told 1310 NEWS. “So I do think the more serious wording is important, too.”

The stickers will be distributed by Ecology Ottawa in-person at various events through the year and can also be ordered through the campaign's website.