Conservative versus liberal: A knock-down, drag-out climate policy fight

(credit: tanith k / Flickr)

While the United States debates whether or not to put a price on carbon emissions, Canada is getting into the nitty-gritty of how best to do it. The country's ruling Liberal Party enacted its carbon tax back in 2016 to much controversy. Former Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leader Andrew Scheer decried the tax and suggested it was a blow to national unity within Canada. A few provinces with conservative governments-notably Ontario and oil-rich Alberta-took legal action against the tax, claiming that it wasn't constitutional.

Recently, the Supreme Court of Canada decided that the tax was constitutional.

The CPC-which still retains ties with its provincial counterparts despite having a different name-has now proposed its own carbon-pricing scheme. Its strategy is a different beast from the Liberals' existing policy. This is likely in no small part because the CPC's relationship with the climate has long (but not always) been strained.

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