We have seen Conservative Governments in Ontario and Saskatchewan balk at carbon pricing and the Federal Conservatives basically trying to use the old “tax on everything line” they used with success against Stephane Dion’s Green Shift a decade ago, cancelling climate change fighting programs and/or failing to offer (viable) alternatives.
At the moment, the governing Federal Liberal Party’s climate change plan appears to give them both the moral high ground on fighting climate change, as well as a factor in popular support.
Two polls to point to to show this: Innovative Research published this poll on the Federal Liberal Carbon Tax (views in Ontario specifically) and highlighted it on Twitter. This poll shows that while the “populist base” of the Ontario Conservatives remains adamantly opposed to carbon pricing, the class of Conservatives that Innovative calls “Deferential” is more split on the topic.
Also today, perhaps not so coincidentally, a new poll from Nanos Research shows the Liberals enjoying a double digit lead on the Conservative Party.
If the Federal Conservatives under Andrew Scheer are so eager to make the federal carbon tax/ carbon pricing scheme an election issue, they need to do more then bash it; they need to show Canadians an alternative plan to fighting GHG emissions, something they so far have failed to do, though Scheer keeps promising one “soon” (TM). (Ford’s government hasn’t published their proposals to fight GHG emissions either, by the way)
It must be a pretty complex “plan” if they can’t release it yet; or maybe they don’t have one yet… or they’re waiting for an election campaign so there will be less time to scrutinize it. Alternatively, they could just tell us what they probably believe: there’s no such thing as man-made climate change or if there is, we can’t or don’t want to do anything about it. If we can’t do it for free.. its not worth doing!
That might not go over well with the electorate.
