Senior Advisor, Climate Change Government of Manitoba, David McLaughlin, takes part in a panel on Development and Sustainability during the 2018 Manning Networking Conference in Ottawa on Saturday, February 10, 2018. iPolitics/Matthew Usherwood

The aggressive anti-carbon tax stance of the federal Conservative party has limited their environmental policy options, David McLaughlin said Saturday.

“I believe the Conservative party has been … snake bit by its own success,” Brian Mulroney’s former chief of staff told iPolitics at the Manning Networking Conference in Ottawa Saturday.

McLaughlin said Conservatives must reckon with the political reality that voters might want to see movement on climate issues.

“If the voting public says ‘I’m sorry, I’m not voting for you because you don’t have a legitimate climate change plan, you don’t seem to care about the environment,’ that will do more to change Conservative policy on this approach … let’s wait and see,”

The party first opposed the implementation carbon tax plan in 2008 after it was raised by then Liberal leader Stéphane Dion. Stephen Harper called it a cash-grab, suggesting it could even threaten national unity.

That kind of branding, McLaughlin said, has stuck — so much so that “it is now very much part of the Conservative DNA, if you will.”

The position makes it difficult for Conservatives today to try and implement one, McLaughlin said something that is obvious in the Ontario PC leadership race.

All three leadership candidates — Caroline Mulroney, Doug Ford and Christine Elliott — told this weekend’s conference they oppose a carbon tax, an idea former leader Patrick Brown had backed.

McLaughlin said a carbon tax also goes against another Conservative value, small government. That makes it a harder sell for Conservatives, he said.

It’s a reality federal Tory MP Ed Fast echoed.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that … carbon taxes ultimately will become just more general revenue for governments to spend on their priorities,” Fast told the Manning Conference.

The British Columbia MP and former trade minister said he opposes a carbon tax because it bolsters government coffers.

“I don’t think (the branding) limits us at all,” Fast said

Still, McLaughlin said Saturday it’s possible for the Conservatives to back a carbon tax. Somebody just has to “do it first,” he said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government has said it will impose one. However, the federal government has left implementation up to the provinces. The policy is vehemently opposed by the province of Saskatchewan.

However, Manitoba’s governing Conservatives are developing a carbon pricing plan, McLaughlin said. If the plan works, others might not be so opposed to the idea of a carbon tax.

“If we have some success in Manitoba, that might help embolden some others say ‘yes, there is a way to do it’ — and I know there is a way to do it, because we are doing it in Manitoba,” said McLaughlin, noting there’s still work to do.