It’s safe to say that Canadians didn’t sweep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals into office on the strength of their climate policy. Their green agenda was long on good intentions and short on specifics. But still, expectations are high.

Sadly, the Liberals have been skittish about pushing the issue since they were burned in the 2008 federal election by Stéphane Dion’s poorly marketed Green Shift strategy, with its $15-billion-a-year carbon tax. While credible and forward-looking, it was a complex plan that the Conservatives panned as a “green shaft,” and voters found hard to understand.

But times change. Today, Canadians are better-versed on the threat global warming poses, and the need to arrest a dangerous rise in the Earth’s temperature. Quebec and Ontario are collaborating to tamp down carbon output. Polls confirm that people want real federal leadership. And they say they are prepared to pay more for gas and home heating to promote a greener economy.

All this gives Trudeau and his team — including environment and climate change minister Catherine McKenna, foreign affairs minister Dion and natural resources minister James Carr — plenty of social licence to flesh out a bolder policy.

Trudeau has already announced his plans to attend the United Nations Climate Conference in Paris from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11, to signal how serious he is about tackling the issue. The conference will try to agree on a legally binding, universal agreement to restrain global warming. Canada’s target is to cut carbon emissions by 30 per cent by 2030, from their 2005 level. But there’s no plan to deliver.

Trudeau has promised to provide “national leadership” after a decade of Tory foot-dragging, by partnering with the provinces to establish a “pan-Canadian framework” to establish emissions targets within 90 days of the Paris conference. That framework will encompass provincial carbon pricing policies. He also promises to invest in green infrastructure and clean technologies and to phase out fossil fuel subsidies.

Those targets should be ambitious, pricing should be robust and the funding generous.

Certainly, Trudeau has sufficient political capital to lobby the provinces for carbon-pricing policies that are high enough to have a measurable impact.

A new poll by Nanos Research reports that fully 78 per cent of Canadians want Ottawa to play a leadership role in reducing greenhouse gases. And 64 per cent would accept higher taxes on gasoline, natural gas and heating oil to cut emissions, if the revenue is used to support a greener economy. Fickle as public opinion can be, that’s a higher level of support than past polls have found.

Moreover, the Liberal premiers of Canada’s two biggest provinces, Ontario and Quebec, have agreed to work together to curb emissions. Premier Kathleen Wynne has opted for Quebec’s cap-and-trade carbon-pricing system. When Ontario is fully on board more than half the nation’s output will be covered. But Quebec’s current carbon price is $12 a tonne, too low to have more than a modest positive impact. British Columbia’s $30 carbon tax is a more effective price point to reduce demand.

Trudeau’s new cabinet committee on “environment, climate change and energy,” headed by Dion, needs to set the bar higher as Ottawa works with the provinces to strike a better, more climate-friendly balance between developing oil and gas reserves, and protecting the environment.

The team has a green light to go greener. It should step lively.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Read more about: