Andrew Scheer criticizes dairy prices while supporting supply management

The attack is part of a series titled "Justin Trudeau's Twelve Days of Failure".

A carton of milk and a piece of cheese are prominently featured in the image accompanying the text. Also shown are a box of macaroni and a cut of meat.

The tweet claims that the average Canadian middle-class family now pays $800 more in income taxes. Carbon taxes and new payroll taxes will undoubtedly increase the financial burden even more.

The suggestion is that increased taxes make it more difficult for people to feed themselves with basic food items like meat, pasta and dairy products.

Scheer could have made milk more affordable

What's interesting about this choice of consumer goods is that Andrew Scheer still defends a market mechanism that artificially increases the price of milk and cheese.

Supply management controls how much milk can be produced through a quota system. It provides high barriers to entry for aspiring producers and severely limits free trade.

Andrew Scheer famously poked fun at himself at the 2017 Press Gallery dinner when he denied owing his Conservative Party leadership victory to "a certain group" which lobbied for him... and then proceeded to drink from a carton of milk.

Andrew Scheer jokes about being beholden to interests defending supply management

That Canada's Leader of the Official Opposition has actually banded together in solidarity with Trudeau's government to defend supply management - and thus artificially boost the cost of milk and cheese - makes this Twitter attack appear a bit disingenuous.

In a National Post commentary on the dairy issue, Andrew Scheer's Conservatives are described as being as fake on free trade as Trudeau.

American milk is currently taxed at nearly 300% and supply management is at the root of a trade dispute between the United States and Canada. The North American Free Trade Agreement has been renegotiated and Donald Trump has slapped tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum.

The cost of living may be going up, and Conservatives are justified in demanding lower taxes. However, only true free-market policies will lift American sanctions and allow for increased production and competition in the dairy industry.

Standing up to the dairy cartel is how we could actually make milk and cheese more affordable.