Globe and Mail

Prime Minister Stephen Harper called the idea crazy, and the reaction of big business was mixed, but the votes that matter for Stéphane Dion and his new Green Plan exist on the other end of the political spectrum.

The Liberal Leader staked his political future Thursday on a controversial plan that, experts say, is an effort to win support on the splintered left. The plan, which balances $15-billion in carbon taxes with an equivalent cut in income taxes, will be a main plank in an election campaign that at least some Liberals now believe will come in the fall.

One of the privileges we share with a strong Prime Minister is being free to think beyond the utterances of ambitious ministers. There are good reasons for both Stephen Harper and ordinary Canadians to not endorse Environment Minister John Baird’s dismissal of “Stéphane Dion’s 50-cent-a-litre carbon tax.” In fact, giving the idea space to breathe may serve the environment and the Prime Minister’s conservative principles.

Stéphane Dion is poised to unveil a carbon-tax scheme and attempt to neutralize any political damage by offering corresponding personal income tax cuts of between $10-billion and $13-billion to working Canadians, senior Liberal sources say.

The Liberal Leader wants this major environmental policy to be the centrepiece of the party’s election campaign platform, according to the sources, and is anxious to reveal it this summer to give Canadians a chance to digest the idea before a federal election.

When it’s the world’s leading scientists against the Conservative leader, it’s good to go with the scientists.