Liberal carbon tax to file paternity suit against Ignatieff

Taking the opportunity of being in the part of the country that shut out all but seven Liberals, Michael Ignatieff told westerners yesterday that the party’s marquee carbon tax of the last election was a mistake.

Today’s Toronto Star celebrates the inevitable facing of facts with the headline “Dion's carbon tax plan was a vote loser, Ignatieff says”

But hold up a second. Whose carbon tax, was that again?

While there can be no question that Stephane Dion raised the carbon tax as his own; fed it and put it through school; the father of the Liberal Party’s carbon tax is, it will be recalled, one Dr. Michael Ignatieff, BA, MA, PhD, Esq.

In the heady days of the fateful 2006 Liberal leadership race that ultimately chose Dion, it was the then-front runner Ignatieff who first suggested a carbon tax. Barely unpacked from his arrival in Canada, Professor Ignatieff proposed the Liberal Party reverse its long-standing opposition to carbon taxes in an attempt to pick what strategists knew would be a fight with Stephen Harper which would serve to lift him above the Rae-Dion-Kennedy “also-rans” and secure victory.

The Vancouver Sun announced the carbon tax's glorious birth saying:

“Canadians are ready for tough measures, including a controversial "carbon tax" to boost the cost of environmentally-unfriendly fuel, in order to deal with the escalating problem of climate change, Liberal leadership candidate Michael Ignatieff said Sunday.”

Not only did Dr. Iggy sire the carbon tax, he was even the first to hint at the unfortunate “Green Shift” name.

"I'm proposing to cut taxes on the clean fuels to create a powerful incentive in the marketplace. It's tax-shifting, not tax-increasing,"

So come on Dr. Iggy, live up to your responsibilities.

It’s easy to recognize a mistake born of bad judgment (heck, you are even developing a knack for it), but it’s another to be a dead beat dad to the albatross you brought into the world.