The Problem with the Green Shift Plan

In the recent past, the Ottawa Citizen's Susan Riley was almost ridiculously pro-Stephane Dion and pro-Carbon tax.

And now she's disappointed with other key Liberals for their failure to back up the Liberal leader on the Green Shift scheme, a point she made in a teary column a few days ago.

So I responded with a letter to the editor pointing out the obvious:

Monday, September 08, 2008

Re: Liberals shift down, Sept. 5.

Dear Sir/Madam:
Columnist Susan Riley's impassioned defence of Liberal leader Stéphane Dion and his Green Shift plan completely misses the point.

Mr. Dion's scheme might be good economics, as Ms. Riley believes, but it's terrible politics.

Here's the problem: any political idea you need to explain to voters before they will accept it is by definition a bad idea. In politics you want people to react, not think.

Winning political ideas are the ones which you don't need to explain because they resonate with a voter's emotions: fear, anger, pride, patriotism.

And it's hard to get emotional about a complicated Green Shift plan that's more about tax codes and subsidies than saving the environment.

This is a lesson the Liberals might have to learn the hard way.

Gerry Nicholls, Oakville