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OTTAWA — Conservative leadership candidates are quickly staking their ground on federal carbon pricing in what has become a tricky but important issue for a party that wants to strengthen its environmental credentials while defending the taxpayer.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s announcement that the Liberal government will introduce a national price on carbon pollution — of $10 per tonne in 2018 and increasing to $50 per tonne in 2022 — was immediately panned by the Conservatives as a massive tax grab that will destroy jobs and hurt an already fragile Canadian economy.

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Trudeau has promised the carbon pricing plan will be revenue neutral and that provinces and territories will have the option of adopting a carbon levy like those in British Columbia and Alberta, or a cap-and-trade system like those in Quebec and Ontario, as long as it meets the federal standard.

Therein lies part of the conundrum for Conservatives: provinces representing more than 80 per cent of the Canadian population already have carbon pricing in some format.