Harper and energy prices

Yesterday, Stephen Harper was quoted in the Globe and Mail saying, "What I worry is this is just the tip of the iceberg if we get a carbon tax on energy." If he is implying that higher energy prices are bad, I have this to say:

Let's forget about taxes (and the fact Harper is yet again ignoring the shift in the green tax shift) for the moment. Hasn't Mr. Harper noticed how much the price of oil and the Canadian dollar have dropped as this economic crisis progresses? That's real dollars lost to Canada as a whole because we are net exporters of oil.

If Stephen Harper only cared about the Canadian economy, especially in the short term, he should be worried about lower energy prices. That would make Canada poorer. If the worst predictions, like those made by bank economists yesterday, come to pass, we might enter a depression where low commodities prices and not high prices would be part of the problem.

But, apparently, he may not care about the economy because he has an election to worry about.