madmax hits the nail on the head. I know it's unpopular to say this among progressives, but the environment is not, and never has been, a 'kitchen table' issue that will swing a lot of votes. Canadians fret about the environment and tell pollsters they're worried about the environment when the economy is doing well and there's nothing else to worry about. I well remember the 'Earth Day' crazes in the mid- to late-80s, when recycling was suddenly in vogue, everyone was terrified of acid rain and the hole in the ozone layer, and suddenly governments couldn't ban CFCs fast enough. Today's "climate change" was the 1980s' "greenhouse effect". Then the 1990s recession hit, and (surprise, surprise) suddenly nobody cared about the environment anymore. When people sit down at their kitchen tables after they've put the kids to bed, they worry about their jobs, taxes, paying the bills, paying for Grandma's medication, paying for university, etc. Those are the kinds of issues that motivate people to vote - not endless estoeric debates about cap-and-trade vs. carbon tax.

The plus side of these periodic 'flare-ups' of environmentalism is that they are good for raising general awareness of environmental issues among the public, and often leave at least a bit of a concrete legacy. Thanks to the ozone layer/greenhouse effect discussions of the 1980s, CFCs were banned and municipal curbside recycling programs are the norm.

All this is by way of saying - let's not kid ourselves that the NDP is going to stand or fall on its environmental platform in the next election. There is a golden opportunity for the NDP to tarnish Campbell's image as a good economic manager as things continue to go south, but people also need to be convinced that the NDP won't drive the economy into the ditch if elected. Rightly or wrongly, that is the widespread public perception (ie that the NDP are incompetent economic managers) that needs to be overcome.