It's not in the platform pamphlets, but the issue of canned pop has bubbled to the surface of the P.E.I. election.

Liberal leader Robert Ghiz say he'll consider removing the ban on selling carbonated beverages in cans. Pat Binns says a Tory government would leave the can ban alone.

A Liberal candidate in Summerside, Duke Cormier, ignited the debate last week. He claims the Island is losing up to $2 million in taxes each year because Islanders are buying canned pop in other provinces and bringing it home.

The law banning canned pop goes back 20 years and was put in place because of concerns over littering.

Robert Ghiz says his Liberal candidates have been been hearing about the canned pop issue.

"They're hearing it at the door, they're hearing it everywhere. I believe that now is the time that Prince Edward Island should look at bringing canned pop back."

Tory leader Pat Binns, who scored his own Pepsi points by visiting the Island's only pop plant on Monday, says his government would leave the ban in place.

"We think it's the most progressive environmental legislation in the country," Binns says. "To a certain extent Islanders have the best of both worlds. They have the benefit of a lot of important jobs here in the province, and we're doing more in terms of for the environment than anybody else."

Robert Ghiz says modern recycling plants mean cans are not the environmental threat they once were.

He also reasons that the Pepsi plant in Charlottetown is now owed by the Pepsi Bottling Group, a company from off-Island.

"I believe part of the reason was because Seamans Beverages was doing the bottling here. We've now sold out to Pepsi, it takes that issue out of it," Ghiz says.

He also says the jobs at the plant are not as much of an issue since the workers are employed by a company from outside the province.