Bell: Notley loses big ammo against Kenney bogeyman

Alberta UCP Leader Jason Kenney at Universe Machine Co. in Edmonton on Wednesday March 6, 2019, where he announced how his party will cut red tape to help create jobs in Alberta if elected in the upcoming provincial election. (PHOTO BY LARRY WONG/POSTMEDIA)

The Notley NDP braintrust, such as it is, will not be happy with the words to follow.

They were so counting on this hammer to bash the bogeyman.

They so wanted that sound bite to be heard every single day of the upcoming Alberta election campaign.

They needed something to bring out and try to get citizens spitting mad at somebody other than themselves.

Now it’s gone.

What are we talking about?

Go to a gathering of the NDP faithful or to any happening where the governing party is hustling for votes and one line of attack will always be in the barnburning script.

Rachel Notley cast as the voice of the people slamming Jason Kenney as the dastardly sellout politician in the pocket of the rich.

Kenney, the United Conservative leader, causing pain for us while giving a $700-million tax cut to the wealthiest 1%, doling out a sweetheart deal for the well-heeled.

Well, that tax cut isn’t in the United Conservative election platform.

There are no plans any time soon to change the personal income tax system. The vast majority of Albertans pay 10%. A small minority pay more.

That won’t change for quite some time.

Kenney tells your scribbler one tax cut he’ll be talking about on the hustings is the killing of the carbon tax.

There’s another one.

As the UCP leader announced earlier this week, if he’s elected the corporate tax rate will go from 12% to 8% over four years and deep thinkers forecast 55,000 jobs as the economy grows.

But on the personal income tax front, well, let Kenney explain.

“Because of the NDP’s fiscal trainwreck, the cupboards are bare and we’ve concluded we can’t do an additional personal income tax cut until the budget is balanced,” he says.

When a United Conservative government is close to a balanced budget they would appoint a Tax Reform Commission to advise on “how to get the most pro-growth tax policy in the province.”

That might mean going back to a single rate tax, a flat tax.

Kenney says he’s a fan, it helped grow the economy and was core to the Alberta Advantage.

I would hope if there is a flat tax it would be set at a rate lower than 10%. Then everyone would get a tax cut.

Those decisions are down the road.

Kenney says a new government will need to be serious about getting rid of these yearly budget deficits and starting to pay down a debt the NDP plans to take to almost $100 billion, if they manage another four years running the show.

‘We didn’t create this mess. The NDP did,” says the UCP leader.

“We have to make some choices.”

The Notley NDP will surely be angry with Kenney. He’s spoiled their fun. The NDP speechwriters will have to come up with new lines.

They tried to paint Kenney as a knuckle-dragging neanderthal with sinister designs to trample on the rights of women and LGBTQ individuals and the vulnerable.

They tried to pin Kenney down as a risky and extreme menace who will slash and burn government bringing a plague of pain upon the land.

It hasn’t worked so far.

Psst … for the record, the biggest elephant in the room are labour costs in the provincial government. Just saying.

You ever think how much the Notley NDP equates the working class with government workers.

The rest of us, they do not feel our pain.

Anyway, how does Kenney think the Notley NDP will react when they hear the latest news?

Kenney says they’ve been “inventing fictitious 20% spending cuts by the United Conservatives from Day One.”

“I fully expect they’ll continue to lie about our fiscal plans. That’s all they can do. They can’t defend their own disastrous record. So they’ll just continue to make it up as they go along.”

And there’s Notley who attacked Kenney’s desire to cut taxes on business.

Kenney says he’s got top economists on his side.

Notley hiked corporate taxes and brought in billions of bucks less than she figured. And the United Conservative leader has seen numbers showing most Albertans are with him on this issue.

Some even want those taxes cut further.

“I’m happy to have a debate with the NDP over their job-killing policies.”

Kenney will get that chance soon enough.

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