A group of longtime Conservatives is advocating for leadership hopefuls to develop credible climate plans, while cancelling the federal carbon price has…
Ken Boessenkool, executive director of the recently launched Conservatives for Clean Growth, said Friday it doesn’t view a consumer carbon price as the make-or-break feature of a good plan to tackle climate change.
“There are many ways to get there,” said Boessenkool, who previously served as an adviser to different conservative leaders, including former prime minister Stephen Harper. “There’s incentives or smart regulations, relying on technology.” “I’m the only candidate for prime minister that will protect people’s paycheques and make life more affordable by cancelling the carbon tax,” he said in Regina on Friday.Article content
In terms of details, Poilievre said he would put in place targets to reduce carbon-related emissions and then leave it up to provinces to decide how to proceed, naming off the use of nascent technology like carbon capture and storage as well as small modular nuclear reactors. His decision followed the plan former leader Andrew Scheer campaigned on during the 2019 federal election, which didn’t include a carbon price and was slammed by experts as insufficient.
Bernstein added that whatever happens one thing is for certain. Polling data shows voters in swing ridings, which Conservatives need to capture if they hope to form government in the next general election, support carbon pricing.