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In reality the new alliance is based on a singular idea: defeat or repeal the carbon tax wherever its ugly head arises.

Kenney calls it the equivalent of a sin tax on cigarettes and alcohol. Heating your home and driving your vehicle is the new vice, he says.

Ford calls it the job destroyer and the “worst tax ever.”

OK, we get the message. No one likes a new tax, especially one that taxes the use of a province’s major product.

We also know clever politicians know how to ride an issue all the way to the ballot box. Then what? What is the plan to actually deal with climate change?

By coincidence, days after the rally, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted dire consequences if we can’t stop planet Earth from warming up just 1.5 C. Droughts, rising sea levels, storms and destroyed eco-systems are all predicted if we don’t act quickly.

The UCP has not yet released any policy on the environment other than it “is committed to developing environmental policy and legislation based on robust, scientific, evidence-based information, that safeguards the quality of our land, air, and water for the health, use and enjoyment of Albertans, for generations to come.” It remains to be seen what that policy is.

All we know from Kenney are comments he has made about returning to some form of charge on industrial emitters. But that is a tax, too; a hidden tax that eventually hits the consumer.

Before we get too far into the next election campaign, let’s hear what politicians are for rather than what they are against.