The editorial in today's National Post states the case as well as it can be done. In their aptly titled Good strategy, bad policy the Post points out that by adding a Kyoto rider into the budget implimentation bill the Liberals may have backed the Conservatives into a corner and have created a favourable ballot box question, they have done the Canadian economy no favours.
...If the Conservatives bring down the government by voting against it, as they say they might, the Liberals will be able to win votes east of Alberta by labelling the Tories anti-environment,
accuse them of triggering a premature election that few want, and go to the polls before the Gomery inquiry can inflict more Adscam damage. Meanwhile, if the Conervatives vote against the bill or abstain, they will alienate core supporters to whom the Liberals' environmental policies are anathema.
It is frustrating to watch politicians play one voting block off of another (to be clear, all political parties do this). Here the Federal Liberals are enacting legislation harmful to Conservative voting Albertans while innoculating Liberal voting Ontarions and Quebecers from the harms of a "Carbon Tax".
It is similar to what the Ontario Provincial Liberals have done with the Greenbelt. This legislation has dramatically decreased the value of farm land in the Greenbelt. This lowering of supply has created a higher demand for land in the 416 area. Is it a coincidence that rural voters are by and large Conservative and urban voters by and large Liberal? I think not.
