Dion: I Will Not Repeal The Metric System

And other interesting bits from a speech/question & answer session given in Espanola, Ontario. Don't know if the writer cleaned-up his English, but Dion comes off as quite articulate. And if he can explain his carbon tax proposals this clearly, I don't think the Tories attempt to "pre-frame" the issue as being about hiking gas prices will play that well.

For one thing,

...sources say that the plan would not add more taxes to gasoline.

The trick (for me) will be that the Lib environmental plan does not wind up being entirely urban-centric; that there is stuff in it that allows Dion and Co. to pitch it to Tory leaning rural/suburban ridings. For instance, their LEM proposal (Location Efficient Mortgage) is great for people living near a half-decent public transit system. If you don't, you're not likely to be impressed.

Update: Conservative Gerry Nichols makes a good point: everyone is proposing a carbon tax these days, including (most likely) the federal conservatives.

Even Alberta has one, but they're don't call it that.

Libs Ponder LEM

Another idea is what Liberal environment critic David McGuinty calls a "location-efficient mortgage" that would let people who buy homes near public transit borrow mortgage money at a lower interest rate. That would encourage transit use and discourage driving.

An American idea, notably West-Coasty, that's been around for a decade or so.

Good in that it encourages city living and increases in urban density. Bad in that it doesn't offer much to anyone outside of those ridings already inclined to vote Liberal.

The broader concept of a "green mortgage" discussed in the piece is solid, if small-bore and unflashy (I don't know that you can hang your whole environmental platform on it). One advantage is that it can be marketed as being good for the environment generally, without reference to particular issues like AGW.