This is one of those moments where I can’t decide whether I am witnessing principled opposition or crass opportunism.

Carole James is launching an “Axe the Tax” campaign, attempting to mobilize strong grassroots opposition to the gas tax portion of Gordon Campbell’s greenhouse fighting initiatives.  Initially, it will result in a 2.4 cent per liter gas tax, which is going to rise over time.

Of course, the clarion call of any government introducing a new tax is “it is revenue neutral!”  Of course.  This year.  But in a couple of years, when you need the revenues, that will end.  Because, as always in Canada, there is no legal enforcement mechanism that requires revenues from certain taxes to be dedicated to specific expenditures.  Thus, there is never a guarantee that taxes will stay dedicated to what their proponents say they will be.

But I digress.  The NDP leader is fighting like crazy to keep the Green Party from becoming a legitimate force in provincial politics.  As the strength of the unions begin to wane from the rise of oil and gas (which pays so much in general, they hardly ever have unions) and the descent of the forestry industry, the NDP are seeking to find a new foothold.  They had it in the environmentalist left, but with the Green Party beginning to gain momentum, that is slipping.

Then came Campbell’s green package a few months ago.  In finest political tradition, a ruling party steals the platform right out from under their opponents.  If they take the green path, the Green Party and the NDP have no stick to beat them with.  They were right.  It has forced Carole James to do the unthinkable - engage in a populist ground war against the very people she was courting to buttress NDP support - the uncommitted Green people.  How is she going to at once maintain her party’s environmental policies while fighting against a “carbon tax”?

I agree it must be done.  As opposition leader, this is what she is getting paid to do.  This is a potentially very divisive issue and could very well help her party’s fortunes if played right.  In the vast wilderness that encompasses 9/10ths of this province, there is no greener option than the gas guzzling pickups that ride the gravel roads of rural BC.  Have you seen the axles on the “green” 4×4s?  They are made of pipecleaners!  They may be fine for city slickers who need them to go berry picking in the summer a couple of times, but when you face the winter, the potholes, the ploughs, the washouts, etc. that interior residents face much more routinely, you need something with meat - and that burns gas.

Needless to say, higher gas prices don’t sell well where there isn’t a regular bus route.  And rural citizens generally don’t vote NDP (with the exception of unionized millworkers, who are probably pretty ticked right now as they are all laid off with mill closures).  But if they were told that the NDP were standing up for the gas they have to pour into their tanks, well they may indeed change their tune.

My question is how much the NDP will lose to the Green Party or the Liberals in urban BC to gain the rural gas tax haters?