Canadian petrol price up 13 cents / litre amid election campaign

"Supply fears" related to Hurricane Ike are being claimed as the reason for a huge 13 cent / litre petrol price rise in Canada yesterday.  That would be close to 20 cents NZ at current exchange rates. Canada has other issues that make for a fairly uncompetitive market, but even taking that into consideration, this was a BIG jump. 

The petrol price increase is against the backdrop of Canada's minority Conservative government, lead by PM Stephen Harper, having decided to call an October 14th general election for the federal Parliament in Ottawa. 

The polls are telling a fascinating story. The Conservatives are "way out in front" (according to the right-wing "Sun Media" news chain)........on barely 38%.  The Opposition Liberals are on 28% and four more parties are on 8% or better. 

Canadian voters on the Centre-left account  for over 55% of the vote, but it is split three ways between the Liberals, NDP and the Greens. Even  the populist Bloc Quebecois, based soley in French-speaking Quebec, is arguably a centre-left party. Their 8% takes the total to 63%, compared to the Conservative's 37%. But the Conservatives are the largest single bloc of votes and Canada still uses the First Past the Post voting system. So what 63% of Canadians think may not amount ot much depending one whether or not the Consevatives win a majority of the 318 seats. The past two elections have delivered minority governments, first for the Liberals, then for the Conservatives. 

Clearly Canadians are significantly fragmented on who should govern and the winner of this election will have a hard time claiming they have a mandate to do anything if more than 60% of voters didn't vote for them. But that's First Past the Post for you. Britain's current Labour government "won" with only 35% of the vote just under 4 years ago.  

It will be interesing to see if the petrol price rise features in their election as an issue and whether or not there is any effect on prices here, this far from the hurricane zone. 

Canada's Conservatives are firmly in the denialist camp where climate change is concerned, having done essentially nothing about implementing Kyoto while echoing the "wisdom" of George W Bush on climate change. It's an issue that could cut their legs off. Public opinion in Canada is firmly of the view that something must be done. The conservative media in Canada are doing the same thing there as they are here, highlighting the cost of reducing emissions without making much, if any, mention of what the cost of doing nothing might be. 

Living in a land on the knife's edge between frozen in winter and fried in summer, Canadians are well aware of how their climate is changing. The Canadian version of the reality denying global Conservative model won't easily be able to turn back that tide.