The tax would target sugary drinks with the intention of making them less popular among consumers

Ontario Liberal MPs want to pitch a new kind of tax they are hoping will fight Ontario's obesity problem.

Under the soda tax, high sugar means high prices; Ontario Liberal MPs are hoping it will act as an incentive for manufacturers to make fewer sugary drinks.

David Hammond is a public health professor at the University of Waterloo.

He said if it really is implemented, the soda tax will prove to become a good new policy for Canadians.

"The idea is that we have an increasing health care cost. Obesity is close to taking over from tobacco with the leading cause of death and disease and this is maybe one way of nudging that downward."

He said beverages are a big source of our national sugar intake, especially for kids.

"They don't seem to trigger us to feel full in the same way. So the problem is that you can drink a heck of a lot of sugar. So you know it's 20-25 sugar cubes in some of these drinks. You can consume that, but it doesn't make us feel full in the same way. That's why there's a special concern for the sugar we drink, rather than for the sugar we eat."