Here in ‘merka it’s easy to forget that there is another election going on, up in Canada.

As with the last election, I support the Liberal Party of Canada. Why? Not because Stephan Harper is worse than hitler, surprisingly. In fact he has proven himself to be a relatively moderate right winger. There is of course still the danger that he would show his true stripes if given a majority, but that is not the main reason I don’t support his party.

The main reason I support the LPC in this case is because of the Green Shift. This policy substantially cuts income taxes and replaces them with a tax on carbon pollution. This is an extremely sound economic plan that I have been promoting for years, and I am thrilled that a major federal party is holding it as one of their main election planks.

By providing clear financial incentives to discourage bad behaviour, the “Green Shift” will provide environmental benefits without the requirement to nag people, and avoid the smugness problem that many right-wing people resent when confronted by environmental issues. Offsetting the tax against income tax means this isn’t just a tax grab. To phrase another way, it aligns individual incentives with behaviour that leads to good societal outcomes. To phrase another another way: Nice!

The LPC will almost certainly not win tomorrow. However I hope the ideas of the Green Shift live on. Hopefully the similar ideas instituted by British Columbia’s centre-right Liberal Party will show clear success and inspire the federal Conservative party to work with the LPC on this in the future.