• Does this match your starting opinion?
• How would different stakeholders answer this quiz? Does it matter where you live? Your age/education? Who benefits?

Read the following article about the federal government plan on carbon taxes:

• How do different political perspectives influence economic perspectives?
• Where do you stand on this issue? Select evidence from the article (or other research you may do) to support your position.
• Predict the economic significance of this policy for Canada.

Background: In 2017, Saskatchewan is led by Brad Wall, of the Saskatchewan Party. [The party was established in 1997 by a coalition of former provincial Progressive Conservative and Liberal party members and supporters who sought to remove the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party (NDP) from power.] Manitoba is led by Brian Pallister of the Progressive Conservative Party. Alberta is led by Rachel Notley of the New Democratic Party. The federal government is led by Justin Trudeau of the Liberal Party.

Read through the key ideas of the Economists. Select two and explain how they would respond to the carbon tax debate in Canada. 

1.  
2.  
3.  
4.  
5.  

John Maynard Keynes 1883-1946
Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men, for the nastiest of reasons, will somehow work for the benefit of us all."

Jeffrey Sachs 1954-
Our challenge, our generation's unique challenge, is learning to live peacefully and sustainably in an extraordinarily crowded world. Our planet is crowded to an unprecedented degree. It is bursting at the seams. It's bursting at the seams in human terms, in economic terms, and in ecological terms."

Muhbub al Haq 1934-1998
The real wealth of a nation is its people. And the purpose of development is to create an enabling environment for people to enjoy long, healthy, and creative lives. This simple but powerful truth is too often forgotten in the pursuit of material and financial wealth.

Marilyn Waring 1952-
Men won't easily give up a system in which half the world's population works for next to nothing...[and recognizes that] precisely because that half works for so little,
it may have no energy left to fight for anything else." 

Adam Smith 1723-1790
Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things. All governments which thwart this natural course, which force things into another channel, or which endeavour to arrest the progress of society at a particular point, are unnatural, and to support themselves are obliged to be oppressive and tyrannical."

Watch this Tedtalk and make notes using the following prompts:

• Three things that surprised me;
• Two things I want to know more about;
• How the quote by Adam Smith is still important today. 

Find a recent headline from a newspaper/magazine/television program/social media. Add an explanation of which economist would support the idea and where it fits on the economic spectrum. Remember to cite your source.