Joe Oliver’s turn with the talking points

Apropos of nothing, Joe Oliver’s office released "a statement from Minister Joe Oliver on the NDP’s carbon tax plan" late this afternoon. It is mostly a review of the familiar talking points.

Here, again, are the reasons why this is farcical.

Mr. Oliver first ran as a candidate for the Conservative party in 2008 when the Conservative party’s platform included a promise to "work with the provinces and territories and our NAFTA trading partners in the United States and Mexico, at both the national and state levels, to develop and implement a North America-wide cap and trade system for greenhouse gases and air pollution, with implementation to occur between 2012 and 2015."

I’ve asked Mr. Oliver’s office whether he objected to cap-and-trade at the time.