A Liberal candidate who will be at the University of Victoria today when top climate scientists endorse Stéphane Dion's Green Shift said this week that taxing carbon will mean some people pay more.

“I'll tell you, yes, it's going to cost some families more money,” said Briony Penn, the Liberal candidate in Saanich-Gulf Islands. “Those are the families that have five hummers, and have their air conditioning on, and don't put a sweater on.”

Prime Minister Stephen Harper attacked carbon taxes last week saying they are “not revenue neutral for the average working family.” Natural Resources minister and Penn's Conservative opponent Gary Lunn also came out strongly against carbon taxes.

“It's going to hit Gary Lunn in his 5,000 square foot house and trying to heat it,” said Penn. “That's what we're trying to achieve. We've got to change the way we do things.” Lunn might have to hang some curtains and “put on a sweater like Jimmy Carter,” she said.

The idea is to reward people who take steps to conserve energy and help the environment, she added. “Give them a break and tax that guy in the hummer. That's all the Green Shift is about . . . That hummer is killing my kids' and my grandkids' future.”

UVic climate scientists, including Andrew Weaver and others who shared in a Nobel Peace Prize for their work on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, are expected to endorse Dion's plan at an event this afternoon.