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Andrew Scheer is a brave man. Despite a plethora of polls that say climate change is a major concern of voters, he is promising to abandon the measure that scientists and economists say is the best tool available for curbing emissions.

Scheer is betting that other polls – those saying Canadians don’t want to pay a carbon tax – are more in tune with national sentiment than those saying the environment is up there with the economy and health care on the list of voters’ top priorities.

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But Canadians who are less concerned about climate change and more concerned about the cost of a carbon tax are, by and large, the ones who have already made up their minds to mark their ballots for the Conservatives. So, from a purely electoral perspective, his stance is puzzling

Scheer doesn’t need to win support across the prairies. He needs to get votes in places like Atlantic Canada, where the Liberals are going to lose seats, and in Quebec, where the NDP has collapsed, in the fickle 905 around Toronto, and in British Columbia, which is a crapshoot for every party in every election.