BC Liberal MLA Bill Bennett is the first government politician to say what many of us are thinking—it’s time to kill the carbon tax.

As Tom Fletcher reported last week, Bennett (Kootenay East) told the Legislature:

“In fact, I would go a little further and say that the whole policy regime that's based on the notion that the B.C. government can do something about the amount of human-caused carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere should be rethought – again, in my opinion.”

Sadly, Bennett wasn’t speaking for the BC Liberal government, but it’s a start.

The carbon tax is under review this year as the latest increase comes up on July 1^st—taking the tax on gasoline, for example, to 6.67 cents per litre.

Meanwhile, BC NDP leader Adrian Dix (he of the 20 point lead in the polls) should welcome Bennett to the anti-carbon tax bandwagon. After all, the NDP campaigned against it in 2009. But as Vaughn Palmer reports, Dix seems to have flip-flopped on the carbon tax:

"Are you going to get rid of the carbon tax?" challenged a caller who identified himself as a 20-year supporter of the NDP during Dix's appearance this week on The Bill Good Show on CKNW radio.

"Everybody is taxed to death here and we're sick of it. If you don't, then I'll have to vote for another party - an independent or the Conservatives."

Give the carbon-tax-haters what they want?

The New Democrats tried that in the last provincial election, as Dix readily recalled.

"The NDP campaigned against it and the Liberals campaigned for it and they won," he reminded the radio audience.

Still, that was then and this is now. "It's easy for people to say I'll get rid of that," acknowledged Dix, particularly with the upstart B.C. Conservatives already pledging to axe the tax should they be elevated to government in 2013.

The carbon tax is, by law, revenue neutral to government. In 2011/12, it brought in $960 million to government, which was tied to $1.15 billion in tax cuts: the low income climate action tax credit, reduction of 5% in the lowest two income tax brackets, a $200 northern and rural homeowner benefit, corporate income tax cuts, and cutting school taxes by 50% for farms and industry.

While tax cuts are always welcome, the carbon tax is more of a shift off urban dwellers on to suburban and rural families. Bennett opposes the carbon tax because he knows his Kootenay East residents are no further ahead—even with a $200 annual benefit.

Time to kill the carbon tax and give British Columbians some much needed tax relief at the gas pump—where our taxes are the highest in North America.