What rich prog elites think of the folks who vote for them because they believe their bullshit.

My former party, the NDP, elected Avi Lewis, a self-declared "eco-socialist" who has called for a FULL BAN on new pipelines and all fossil fuel development, as their national leader.

The NDP's new national leader, Avi Lewis advocates for a rapid shift away from hydrocarbon energy by means of a Canadian "Green New Deal," which he says is both a moral imperative and an economic opportunity.

He is opposed to building any new fossil fuel infrastructure, including pipelines, offshore projects, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals. And he believes that "investing" 2% of Canada's GDP — roughly $65 billion — on "climate action" will create more than a million high-paying unionized jobs installing solar panels and heat pumps. This is the so-called "just transition" which will protect our oil and gas workers from losing their jobs even as the industry that employs them is dismantled.

He argues that if we pour tax dollars into wind and solar projects, we will be able to create a coast-to-coast "clean" energy power grid, and thus a "Clean and Green" Canada.

All of this, along with a guaranteed taxpayer-funded income for all, national rent control, government-run grocery stores to combat rising food prices, and on and on.

Best of all, says Lewis, "the money is there!" All the government has to do is take it. That is, by taxing the daylights out of, well, everyone, but especially our oil and gas companies and other job creators.

It seems needless to say — though apparently it still needs saying — that this grab-bag of Neo-Marxist bromides would be disastrous for Canada.

Like it or not — and Lewis and the NDP don't like it — the oil and gas sector is the backbone of Canada's economy, our "golden goose" (in the memorable words of economists Philip Cross and jackass Mintz), which bolsters employment within the energy industry and beyond, drives exports and manufacturing, and supplies government revenue. It contributes around 15% of Canada's GDP.