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I noticed today on the CBC that the average price of gasoline (petrol) in Canada has risen to over $1 CAD a litre [1] for the first time ever (not sure if that is considering inflation or not). It is no wonder given that a barrel of crude oil costs nearly $66 USD these days.

I find it strange that Steven Harper (the leader of the official opposition party in the Canadian Parliament) seems to think that we need to reduce taxes on gasoline to help out Canadians … given that the trend of rising oil prices will likely continue due to Peak Oil [2], if he really wanted to help Canadians he would suggest increasing taxes to get people to ride their bikes or take the bus and then put any extra tax revenue towards helping people to kick their nasty gasoline habit. If fewer high flying executives, soccer moms and Internet tycoons would drive ridiculous cars like these (for the internet tycoons) or these (for the soccer moms) then we might be in a better situation both environmentally and economically. As fuel prices rise in the future it will increase the cost of everything that needs to be moved arround like food or products from Amazon. At least it will even the playing field for local food producers who traditionally cannot produce food as cheaply as you can in places further afield.

Given that transportation acounts for about 2/3 of our oil usage [3] it just seems silly reduce taxes or wage billion dollar wars for oil [4] rather than combatting consumption. Please Mr. Harper (and the rest of the Canadian Government) wake up and smell the reality of running out of oil.

[1] Gas Prices Soar Above $1 - CBC
[2] ‘Peak Oil’ Enters Mainstream Debate - BBC
[3] US Oil Demand by Sector - US Energy Information Administration
[4] Cost of War

Tags: Oil