MEADOW LAKE, Sask. – Paul Charpentier, a northern Saskatchewan cattle producer who works off his ranch to keep it going, says he is “tormented” by Liberal carbon tax proposals.
In this northern riding of Desnethé-Missinippi-Churchill River, the economic core is mining, tar sands, forestry, fishing and agriculture. All are carbon based to some extent. 
The carbon tax contained in Liberal Green Shift proposal is projected to add seven cents per litre of tax to diesel.
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“I was tormented by the carbon tax proposal because that is going to hit hard here,” Charpentier said Sept. 25 after a candidates’ forum in the riding’s largest population centre.
The rancher with 50 cattle worries whether the sector can survive in northern Saskatchewan. But he also said he has faith that local Liberal candidate David Orchard could fix it.
“I trust Mr. Orchard to do what he says he will do and make it better,” he said. “I think there has to be a better balance here. The way I see it now, it is the West being taxed so the money can be wasted down east.”
Orchard, the 58-year-old anti-free trade campaigner and former contender for leadership of the Progressive Conservative party, is campaigning on a promise to win changes to the Liberal carbon tax proposal if Liberals are elected. His loyal following believes he can.
“I support the idea that we should tax the things that pollute and invest in things that do not,” he said in an interview after the candidates’ forum. “And Mr. Dion (Liberal leader Stéphane Dion) to his credit has announced changes that will see more incentives back to farmers. But I do not want to see a policy that unfairly hits farming and fishing sectors and I will be working in Ottawa to get some more changes.”
Since Orchard is a prominent Liberal candidate, national Conservative party campaign planners have jumped on such comments as evidence that candidates are backing away from the Liberal’s centrepiece campaign promise.
The Conservatives are targeting the carbon tax proposal in rural ridings.
On Sept. 25, Conservative candidate and incumbent Rob Clarke decided to skip the candidate forum organized by the Meadow Lake Chamber of Commerce, arguing he had other commitments and besides, such forums draw only partisans and not many uncommitted voters.
However, he did station a campaign worker at the door to hand out a campaign brochure being used across the country that calls the Green Shift proposal “a new tax on everything.”
It includes a photo of a bag of groceries with a gas pump nozzle included. “Can you afford to pay more?” it asks.
Orchard denounced Clarke, who took the seat from the Liberals in a byelection, for refusing to make himself available for voter questions.
Green party candidate George Morin said that instead of a “get tough on youth crime” policy promised by the Conservatives, he would propose a “get tough on politicians” policy that would force them to attend voter forums.
