As Charlottetown NDP candidate Brian Pollard, a filmmaker and taxi driver, notes in this press release, it took less than a week into the campaign for Liberal MP Shawn Murphy to distance himself from the Liberals’ controversial carbon tax plan:

  “There’s no doubt in my mind that Shawn’s a decent and smart man, and that’s why I’m not suprised to hear him favour the NDP’s position over his own party’s,” Pollard said. “The Green Shift is the worst combination of giving corporations the right to pay to pollute, while imposing large burdens on the poorest people who will be the first to suffer under the imposition of such things as huge increases in the cost heating oil and foodstuffs”.

Predictably, on PEI, where most homes are oil-heated and people’s pocketbooks are already feeling strained, the Liberal environmental plan has been a very hard sell for its Liberal incumbent MPs.

Indeed, it was speculated, justifiably so, that one-time Egmont Liberal hopeful Robert Morrissey withdrew from the race because he know the Liberal plan would be an electoral millstone around his neck.

As reported by the Guardian – which covers the Island like the dew – Murphy faced hard questions about the carbon tax at a recent public meeting. He argued that the Liberal plan would not hurt low-income earners, but also said not too worry, he doesn’t imagine it would be quickly implemented:

“This winter, I don’t think you’re going to see the green shift even if the Liberals got elected,” Murphy responded. “There’s no question the lower your income, the more you benefit from green shift.”

So I guess the Liberals are throwing aside the argument that the NDP’s cap and trade climate plan is bad because it can’t be implemented quickly enough.

But Murphy went further, according to the Guardian:

Murphy said he will not single out big oil but he said he does believe there needs to be more than green shift. He said he personally wants to see a cap-and-trade system put in place and he hopes it is contained in the Liberal platform, which will be released later in the campaign.

Finally, Murphy indicated that he would not be in favour of doing anything to stop the environmental destruction of the Athabasca Tar Sands, which the NDP rightly pointed out its health and environmental consequences earlier this week:

“You may not be satisfied with that particular answer but if you want me to say I’m going to shut down the tarsands, the answer is ‘no, I’m not going to’,” said Murphy. “If you want me turn into anti-tarsands, I’m not going to do it.”

If a Liberal MP indicates the NDP environmental plan is better than his party’s and refuses to slow down the unsustainable growth of Canada’s biggest environmental shame, environmentalists might have to reconsider theur support for M. Dion and his party.

Funny, I thought Wayne Easter would have been the first Island Liberal to throw the Green Shift under the bus!