Lynx's departure is yet another loss for the little people

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Tonight, Canada’s newest airline shuts down for six reasons — all of which are Trudeau’s fault.

Lynx Air, the two-year-old low-cost Canadian airline announced that it is going out of business. This is bad news not just for its customers but for all travellers because not only did Lynx offer low-cost airfare, but it put competitive pressure on other airlines, like Air Canada and WestJet, to lower their fares, too.

A statement by Lynx last night offered, "Thank you for your support, it's been a pleasure to offer our affordable fares and great flying experience. We will leave our paw prints in the sky - Lynx."

Thank you for your support, it's been a pleasure to offer our affordable fares and great flying experience.

We will leave our paw prints in the sky - Lynx. 🐾✈️ For more information, please visit our FAQ: https://t.co/MQ3OwAM8h4 pic.twitter.com/0i0lMaM5Qo

— Lynx Air (@Lynx_Air) February 23, 2024

Lynx was made for the people. It was a very low-cost airline — the kind of thing that Europe and the U.S. have a lot of. You buy just a seat, and what you can put under your seat. Everything else is an add-on — not just checked luggage but even putting luggage overhead. They only served water on the plane. But customers loved it because that approach is what made them so cheap. It let people who would not ordinarily fly, fly.

But look again at some of the reasons Lynx listed.

"The compounding financial pressures associated with inflation." That’s on Trudeau. That’s him printing hundreds of billions of dollars.

"Fuel costs." That’s Trudeau’s carbon tax.

"Exchange rates." That’s because our economy is losing ground compared to the U.S., and Lynx was likely paying lease payments on its planes in U.S. currency, and also buying fuel and airport rights in the U.S. in American money.

And what did Pablo Rodriguez, the Transport Minister, have to say?

“I’m closely following Lynx Air’s announcement that they are filing for restructuring under the Companies Creditors Arrangement Act. Lynx is expected to cease operations on Sunday, February 25. I’m thinking of the Canadian travellers and workers affected by this news, their families, and the communities across Canada who will feel the impact of this. For any travellers that had a return flight booked with Lynx, I expect Lynx to help you get back home as soon as possible. I expect Lynx to fully refund you if your fare won’t be honoured. My office has been in touch with Lynx, we will continue to communicate with all parties, and we’ve convened calls with other airlines to see how they can help, to ensure that passengers are put first.”

What an awful announcement. First of all, it's obvious that he had no idea this was happening in advance. Second, there is no statement about Lynx’s reasons for going out of business, even though every single one of them is on the government’s lap. And the audacity of saying that he’s going to make sure that passengers are well-treated? Really? He’s the guy who’s saving the day? As if he’s the hero of the story, not the villain.

He’s clueless, he doesn’t care, he has no command of his file, he’s too busy tweeting about how the carbon tax is wonderful. Did you know the carbon tax is going up in five weeks?

Trudeau and Rodriguez call carbon dioxide “pollution." It isn’t. It’s colourless, odourless, and it’s really plant food. Without CO2 all life on earth would cease to exist. But Trudeau calls it “pollution." and uses that to excuse his tax on it — claiming that it will somehow change the weather.

But if you ever listen to the logic of Trudeau and others on the carbon tax, it’s this: by taxing “bad behaviour," like driving or heating your home, you’ll do less of it. Stephane Dion, who first proposed the
carbon tax when he ran against Stephen Harper fifteen years ago, used the phrase "Green Shift." Tax things that use carbon, and give people money back in “rebates."

So punish certain behaviour. Like driving. Or farming. Or flying on Lynx.

In other words, this is exactly what the carbon tax is meant to do. Paying a tax will not in itself change the weather — even kooks and know-nothings like Trudeau and Rodriguez know that.

They think flying is a privilege that only they deserve. They fly in private jets.

So people like Trudeau and John Kerry hate Lynx Air more than they hate WestJet or Air Canada because it wanted to open up air travel to the little people — people for whom a $300 ticket to Florida is a once-a-year treat, and who could never do it if the fare was $1,000. Those people, say Trudeau and Rodriguez and Kerry, should know their place.

We recently got a look into the future of this kind of thinking. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, announced Apple’s headset visor a few months back.  It’s augmented reality. You don’t actually have to travel anywhere anymore. You can pretend. You can be satisfied with just watching a video on your visor.

That’s the future they want for the little people. As the WEF’s Yuval Noah Harari said, most people will be "useless," and will spend their time playing video games and using drugs.

Or maybe that's being dramatic, right? This is just another airline failing. It’s not some global conspiracy to stop the little people from flying.

Oh, it is. It’s called “sustainable aviation” — here’s the WEF’s website on that. It’s another way of saying that flying should be a luxury good. Like driving. Like eating meat.

They’re trying to make you poorer and unhappier. And Lynx’s demise shows that it’s happening.

GUEST: David Menzies with an update on the college volleyball trans-athletes debacle.