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But two countries can’t both claim credit for the same reductions. And under the Paris agreement the default rule is that reductions are credited to the country where they occur. Maybe we can persuade those countries to give us the credit instead. But we’ll have to make it worth their while.

There’s a lot of other stuff in there that has nothing to do with climate change, really. A “Green Patent Credit,” slashing taxes on income generated from green inventions, or “Green Technology Fund”? These will do nothing to reduce Canada’s emissions. They’re just another form of industrial policy — governments betting their hunches with other people’s money. Conservatives used to dislike that sort of thing.

It’s the whole philosophy — 'technology, not taxes' — that’s wrong

But of course the point of the plan wasn’t so much to say what the Tories would do, as what they wouldn’t. And what they won’t do, if you were wondering, is a carbon tax.

The document repeats all of the party’s talking points on the tax: that it “makes life harder and less affordable for Canadians” (no mention of the offsetting rebates, which the Parliamentary Budget Office has found would more than compensate most households for the cost of the tax), that “families just trying to pay their bills do not always have the flexibility to make different choices” (they still come out ahead, netting the tax against the rebate: they just don’t get to keep as much as they might have otherwise), and so on.

The “Real Plan” is not intended to be a serious policy proposal. It is, essentially, a prop, a “plan” the Conservative leader can wave about during the election campaign when the Liberals demand to know “what’s your alternative.”

It is true that the Liberal plan, as currently stated, will not meet our Paris commitments, either, and that it will fall short largely because they are unwilling, for political reasons, to rely on carbon pricing for more than a fraction of the overall reductions required. But at least we know what the Liberal plan is, how far it will get us, and how much it will cost. You really can’t say the same for the Conservative plan.