Conservative Canadian prime minister hopeful Pierre Poilievre slammed the current woke government’s electric vehicle mandate. Not only are EVs too expensive for less affluent citizens, as Poilievre noted, but their batteries are also toxic for the environment.
After Ottawa announced that it would require all new sold cars to be zero emissions (a term right out of fantasyland) by 2035, Poilievre spoke out against the woke policy, per The Epoch Times. While on the radio program "On Point With Alex Pierson," the politician called out current leftist Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. “The command and control, draconian approach of Justin Trudeau is going to be extremely expensive, particularly for low-income families,” Poilievre explained.
“They have no idea how people are going to pay for it,” he added. Asked if he would retain the EV regulations should he take over leadership of Canada, Poilievre replied, “No, because this is a tax on the poor.” He pointed out that the necessity of government mandates to boost EV sales shows how unaffordable the cars are for the average person. “What is going to happen is working-class people—that waitress who needs to buy that Toyota Corolla or Honda Civic to get to her job or the barber who needs to buy a modest gas-powered sedan or the working-class guy who needs a pick-up truck—is going to be forced to pay $20,000 or $30,000 more for an electric version that may or may not work in cold weather and driving long distances,” he said.
Poilievre advocates regulations to improve fuel efficiency instead. “That will save money for consumers while protecting the environment and over time we get to a point where we have close to zero emissions in our automobiles through various types of technology.” While he is right overall, the fact that he seems to see zero emissions as a positive is a little worrying. Not only are zero emissions impossible for an industrialized society to achieve, but the reality is that humans and animals and plants are carbon-based life forms. Increased carbon isn’t disastrous for the environment; it can even be beneficial. In contrast, cutting carbon is damaging for living beings. As the Scientific American noted in 2012, “It would be impossible for life on earth to exist without carbon. Carbon is the main component of sugars, proteins, fats, DNA, muscle tissue, pretty much everything in your body.“
In my opinion, EV mandates are part of the push to make private transportation impossible for the average citizen, a goal expressed by such groups as the World Economic Forum and C40 Cities. The ironic part is that while EVs are supposed to be better for the environment, their batteries are actually very toxic to manufacture and to dispose of.
Firstly, the electricity necessary to charge EVs is largely produced from non-green sources, especially coal and natural gas. Secondly, EV batteries, which have to be replaced every few years, are very toxic to dispose of. The “mining, manufacturing, and disposal of [EV] batteries threatens to be a major environmental concern in the coming years. Pollution from electric car battery disposal is caused by the toxic and often flammable byproducts of these batteries. Materials in lithium-ion batteries can even spark fires in municipal waste facilities,” reported Shortform in 2022.
Not to mention EV batteries rely on abusive child labor in Africa for a key component. As I have previously reported, “Driving Electric” stated in 2020 that cobalt is necessary for all EV and plug-in hybrid car batteries. “Around 60% of the world’s cobalt comes from mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the metal is sometimes dug out by hand in unregulated conditions, often by child labourers,” the website admitted. According to “Ethical Consumer” in 2022, the percentage is even higher: “70% of the world’s cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo.” Unfortunately, exploitative child labor is a massive problem in the Congo. Not to mention the Communist Chinese control much of the mining in Congo.
Related: Net Zero’s Dirty Secret: Child Labor in Congo’s Mines
Ultimately, not only are EVs unaffordable for most citizens as Poilievre noted, but they aren’t the environment-saving green machines that leftists claim. It’s a total scam.
