"Andrew Scheer here."
If you live in the four provinces where the federal carbon tax is being introduced, you might get a text message from the Conservative Party leader telling you to fill your gas tank this weekend.
The mass-texting campaign against the carbon pricing policy that will take effect April 1 in New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan will direct voters to the Conservatives’ petition against the carbon tax. And the texts might pop up on your phone even if you’ve never given your phone number to the Conservative Party of Canada.
In addition to pulling phone numbers from its own databases, the party will use software that auto-generates numbers with specific area codes in order to blast out the text messages.
One of those texts might look like this:
"Andrew Scheer here.
Trudeau’s carbon tax will raise gas prices on Monday.
So fill your tank!"
The party is also running radio ads against the carbon tax in Saint John, Ottawa, Toronto and Winnipeg, among other markets.
“This effort will be about informing Canadians about the cost of this Liberal tax on everyday items, including the price of gas, and how for wealthy Liberals like Justin Trudeau, an extra $100 a month on bills might not be a big deal, but it matters a lot to a family trying to make their household budget last to the end of the month,” Conservative Party spokesperson Cory Hann said in an email to CTV News.
Hann said there will also be co-ordinated social media campaigns and door-to-door canvassing efforts in the affected provinces over the weekend.
The Liberal government is requiring provinces to impose a price on carbon emissions, starting at $20 per tonne this year and rising by $10 per tonne annually until it hits $50 in 2022. Since Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick have refused to introduce their own carbon pricing plans, Ottawa is imposing its own tax on them.
The Liberals have said the carbon tax is necessary to combat the effects of climate change, and pointed out that rebates will be available to the residents of the four provinces through the tax system.
With files from CTV’s Michel Boyer and The Canadian Press