A test of leadership

It's never been news that the Cons' announcements on climate change this year have been little more than the Libs' previous plans with "Canada's New" scribbled into the title. But the latest step to copy Dion's former strategy looks to be by far the most damaging when it comes to the chances of genuine progress being made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions:

Sources say the Conservative government is planning to let companies pay into a technology fund if they can't meet emissions-cutting targets under a proposed federal plan to curb greenhouse pollution...

Details of the fund are tightly guarded but indications are it will resemble a Liberal climate plan developed by Stephane Dion when he was environment minister.

Like the Liberal plan, the Harper government's strategy is expected to regulate industrial emissions using so-called intensity targets.

Let's start by taking a moment to shudder that the CP is so eager to label the Cons' plans as "tightly guarded" rather than "selectively leaked".

Moving on to the substance, the plan should be an obvious non-starter from the NDP's prespective. But if there was ever any doubt, it appears that the Cons are aiming to get their support elsewhere. And for all the prior incidents that have been blown out of proportion, the Libs' response will amount to probably the first major test of Stephane Dion's leadership.

The effect of the Cons throwing the Libs' prior programs back at them is to force Dion to choose between pushing for real environmental action (i.e. hard targets rather than "intensity" ones) or defending his own track record. And while there have been some positive signs that the Libs are moving past the assumption that they can't vote against anything put into place while they were in power, it'll presumably be much tougher for Dion to lead the charge against a program which is so closely linked to him personally.

Which isn't to say it can't be done. Indeed, the Libs can likely present a fairly strong message to the effect that a program which would have been enough to turn emissions around two years ago falls short of the mark in light of the Cons' complete neglect of the issue in 2006.

But there's a real risk that Dion will instead resort to rhetoric about the Cons stealing his ideas - and paint himself into a corner in being unable to oppose the Cons' plan as a result. And that could result in the environment fading back into the background with nothing more getting accomplished than what was already on the table before the Cons took power.

(Edit: fixed wording.)