Manning Conference: Conservative moves to go green get mixed reception

mentalfloss

Prickly Curmudgeon Smiter
Jun 28, 2010
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Too 'cerebral' lol

Manning Conference: Conservative moves to go green get mixed reception

The pitch to renew the Conservative Party by embracing strong environmental policies faced hostility at the Manning Centre Conference, the major annual gathering of the country’s Conservative politicians and conservative thinkers.

“We’re playing in the wrong arena,” said an attendee after a panel on green conservatism at the conference in Ottawa Saturday. “We’re trying to win at a game we’re not going to win at.”

She was responding to a discussion on stage over how carbon pricing, despite the antipathy toward it from the federal Conservative party, could be marketed as a conservative idea.

A carbon price, which conservatives have pilloried because it would restrict growth in the oil and gas sector, is actually a right-wing policy because it puts the onus of environmental protection on markets, the argument went.

But the attendee, who was speaking during a question-and-answer session with panelists, said the proposal was too cerebral and wouldn’t make sense to average conservative voters.


“How do we as conservatives put a responsibility on individuals to make better choices instead of playing at this high level where there is obviously no consensus?” she said.

But taking government out of the equation and putting power on individuals is precisely what a carbon price would do, said National Post columnist Andrew Coyne, one of the panelists. Once a price is introduced, its costs get passed on to those who use carbon, such as every person who drives a car or flies a plane, and they, the thinking goes, will gradually change their behaviour.

“Once you can get people over the hump of accepting that they’re going to have to pay a price for something that they’ve previously got for free…once you can get people over that large political hump…then day-to-day, people are going to be doing it everyday without even thinking about it,” said Coyne.

That line of thinking has been almost totally absent from mainstream conservative opinion, most notably as Alberta’s oil sands industry sought new pipeline routes and global leaders tried to negotiate international emission limits.

That’s because certain powerful conservatives have chosen to enter the debate over climate change by criticizing the science, despite the overwhelming consensus among scientists behind it, said Christopher Ragan, economist at McGill University and another panelist.

When the science it that solid, “Don’t have the battle about whether we should protect the environment or have the battle over the science of climate change or other environmental issues,” said Ragan. “Have the battle about how to do it.”

Conservatives have largely become the spokespeople for market-based solutions in the political realm, so why not spread that strength to environmental solutions, he said.

“If we have a problem that we need to solve, you want to come up with the best, most conservative and consistent way to solve that problem and surely it is to used market-based measures,” said Ragan.

He pointed to B.C.’s carbon tax as an example, which was introduced with a corresponding decrease in income taxes.

But there was plenty of evidence at Manning that the standard, antagonistic conservative line on the environment is still in vogue.

“If we don’t build the infrastructure critical to this industry, we will not match our potential,” said Jeff Gaulin, vice-president of policy and performance at the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, who spoke during a panel on the oil and gas sector.

https://ipolitics.ca/2016/02/27/man...vative-moves-to-go-green-get-mixed-reception/
 

Mowich

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Dec 25, 2005
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“Once you can get people over the hump of accepting that they’re going to have to pay a price for something that they’ve previously got for free…once you can get people over that large political hump…then day-to-day, people are going to be doing it everyday without even thinking about it,” said Coyne."

There is truth in this, MF. I remember the hue and cry when the BC government brought in our carbon tax. It took about a year or so then no one even mentioned it anymore. These days it is but a memory especially when we are only paying .93/L for gas.