Angry in the Great White North

Stephane Dion's Green Shift, the plan to save the planet through taxes on carbon, is gone.  Have you been to the website?

It redirects to the Liberal Party page.  No more income calculator, no more pictures of Al Gore shaking Stephane Dion's hand.  All gone.  The Liberal Party didn't just scrub the Green Shift site clean of references to Stephane Dion.  The Liberal Party deep-sixed the site in its entirety.

I think a huge part of this is the licensing fee the Liberals were paying to Jennifer Wright's Green Shift Inc for the use of the name.  That arrangement arose out of the settlement of the lawsuit started by Wright against the Liberal Party for using the name of her company as the name of Stephane Dion's carbon tax plan.

Now that the election has been lost, these expensive mistakes can finally be rectified.  The Liberal Party can't afford the Green Shift. 

Funny.  Wasn't that the argument Stephen Harper was using, that Canadians could not afford the Green Shift?

It is interesting, though, that the environment itself has been pushed away as an issue.  The post-election message makes no mention of the environment, Green Shift or otherwise:

Now that the election is behind us, we must prepare for a new session of Parliament, where our MPs and Senators will be called on to address some serious challenges, including the global financial downturn, the weakening Canadian economy, and others.

And others?  The environment has been relegated to "others"?

I wonder whether this goes farther than just an attempt to save some cash

Indeed, the scope of the Liberal Party loss, thanks to Stephane Dion, might have rendered the notion of a carbon tax radioactive for years to come, no matter what it is called.

I'll bet that when that sinks in, more than a few environmentalists will be very upset with Stephane Dion.  Those environmentalists are going to be demanding a new carbon tax plan of the next Liberal Party leader, whoever he or she is.  But it looks like the Liberal Party has already decided that won't be happening.  Not if it costs the party money or votes.