Politics getting in the way of environment debate, Chong says

OTTAWA — Conservative leadership candidate Michael Chong knew a promise to bring in a revenue-neutral carbon tax, if elected, would be a tough sell.

But what he didn’t expect was that his own party machine would make it so tough.

“We’ve been running against the party’s advertising and communications machine that has been campaigning against a carbon tax,” the MP for Wellington-Halton Hills said during a recent wide-ranging interview with The Canadian Press.

“And I’m the only candidate that’s had that challenge.”

Chong, first elected as a Conservative MP in 2004, joined the leadership race a year ago, in part to take on the challenge of changing conservative minds on the issue of a carbon tax.

His policy centres on the belief that regulation and investment in green technology aren’t enough to meet the emission reductions targets set by the last Conservative government.

Introducing a carbon tax to be offset by reductions in other tax levels would work, he said, and so that’s what he’s pitching.

He rolled out the idea just as the Liberal government was bringing forward its own plan on carbon pricing last fall.

The Conservative party quickly nicknamed it a “jobkilling carbon tax.”

At every leadership debate, his proposal is met with boos and jeers, including from his competitors.

It’s frustrating, but Chong remains optimistic he is slowly winning converts.