Day 13 of the Federalection: Green Shift gets Shafted

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said today that his Green Shift plan featuring a controversial carbon tax is not a major part of his election platform.

"You have said it was but never me," Dion told reporters.

His surprise declaration follows by a day campaign appearances in the Toronto area where he failed to mention it once in his speeches.

Dion released the Green Shift plan in June in Ottawa with great fanfare. It proposes to tax fossil fuels while cutting taxes for lower and middle income Canadians.

"I have always said it was an important policy for Canada. I strongly believe it would be good for Canada," he told reporters.

Dion said: “Okay, maybe I didn’t use the word `green shift’ ” but denied he was downplaying the policy.

It appears that the Conservatives continued bashing of Dion's Green Shift in TV ads and on the campaign trail, even so much so that Liberal MPs had a hard time selling it, that more people were calling it a carbon tax, Dion himself is putting the policy on the backburner (pun intended).

Will voters now say, "Oh, it's not an issue anymore, so I'm okay with the Liberal brand" or will they say, "What DO you stand for now, Mr. Dion?"

This is a major flip flop on Dion's part, and the Conservatives will likely come out with TV ads and run with this. Well they should anyway.

This could be a major turning point in the election if spun properly by Harper and Co. Just when polls showing the Liberals catching up again and Conservative support slipping--there's still three weeks left in this puppy, so a swing around with the Conservatives above 38% means they're in "m-word" territory.

I suspect Harper will get a 1-2% bump after the debate after he (hopefully) hammers Dion on his Green Shift shaft.