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Conservative politicians across Canada have strongly opposed the Trudeau government’s promise to impose carbon tax since the idea was floated in 2015. Beginning with Premier Brad Wall in Saskatchewan, opposition to the carbon tax is now a central commitment of conservative premiers Brian Pallister, Scott Moe and Doug Ford, as well as the leader of the official Opposition, Andrew Scheer.

It is easy to see how conservatives would oppose a new tax created by the federal government. After all, what’s more conservative than opposing a new federal tax? Dig deeper down into conservative principles, though, and it is hard to see where those conservative principles point except towards a carbon tax.

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This is counter-intuitive, but conservatism in Canada is a rope wound out of four different strands: traditionalist conservatives, religious conservatives, free market conservatives and conservative populists. The first two strands provide reasons to be concerned about climate change. The last two provide important reasons why a carbon tax is the appropriate mechanism to use to reduce emissions.