Ontario Liberal candidate Granville Anderson said the “silver lining” of astronomical gas prices is that people will be priced out of driving gas-powered vehicles.

“I don’t know if soaring gas prices will take some of the pollutants off the road. Maybe that’s a silver lining, and that may allow people to think outside the box and say maybe I better look at seeing if I can ride a bike to work or buy an electric car or find a different mode of transportation,” Anderson said during a debate.

Later in the debate, the Ontario Liberal candidate admitted that the price could be “a lot lower than it currently is,” but high gas prices might help convince people to think twice about driving a gas-powered car.

“I think the price could be a lot lower than it currently is,” Anderson continued. “But again, I said that may allow us to think twice and probably find another mode of transportation.”

Of course, while Anderson claims that Canadians could simply choose to drive an overpriced electric vehicle, the rise in fuel prices hasn’t just affected the cost of gas at the pumps: it’s affected the price of everything, including the electricity needed to run electric vehicles.

As previously reported by The Counter Signal, in April, year-over-year inflation in Canada hit a 31-year high, a 6.8 per cent increase from last April, with food, housing, and gas prices skyrocketing across the country.

According to Statistics Canada, food and shelter prices drove the increase, while gas, which has surpassed $2 per litre across Canada, saw a less dramatic increase than in March.

“Excluding gasoline, the [Consumer Price Index] rose 5.8 per cent year over year in April, after a 5.5% gain in March. This was the fastest pace since the introduction of the all-items excluding gasoline special aggregate in 1999.”

Moreover, as StatsCan reports, Canadians paid nearly 10 per cent more (9.7 per cent) for groceries in April 2022 compared with April 2021. This price increase exceeded the 5 per cent inflation rate for the fifth month in a row and was the “highest increase since September 1981.

While nearly everything is more expensive, the following basic foods have all seen dramatic increases over the last year:

• Fresh fruit is up 10.0 per cent.
• Fresh vegetables are up 8.2 per cent.
• Meat is up 10.1 per cent.
• Bread is up 12.2 per cent.
• Pasta is up 19.6 per cent.
• Rice is up 7.4 per cent.
• Cereal products are up 13.9%.
• A cup of coffee is up 13.7 per cent.

Increased fuel prices have also had a ripple effect on all energy costs (including those at home), leading to a 7.4 per cent year over year increase — the “fastest pace since June 1983.” Specifically, higher energy costs for heating homes, such as natural gas (+22.2 per cent) and fuel oil and other fuels (+64.4 per cent), significantly contributed to the increase.

“Reflecting the dynamic Canadian housing market, homeowners’ replacement cost (+13.0%), which is related to the price of new homes, and other owned accommodation expenses (+17.2%), which includes commissions on the sale of real estate, both increased in April,” StatsCan reports.

Besides the Liberals’ generally bad economic policies, such as mass money printing to fuel the CERB and CRB during the pandemic, raising the carbon tax on April 1 by 25 per cent has also greatly contributed to rising prices. As an aside, this was also the day that Trudeau decided to give himself and other MPs a raise.

As Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs noted in an op-ed for The Counter Signal:

“The worst part is the carbon tax doesn’t even do what its proponents claim. It was never really a theoretical debate.”

“BC has the longest standing, highest carbon tax, but emissions increase every year.”

“It’s a blatant tax grab; all economic pain for no environmental gain. The answer is technology, not taxes. But perversely, the carbon tax makes Canada uncompetitive globally, especially against similar economies, and drives away the very innovators and private sector developers of the technologies carbon tax proponents say they want.”