The saying goes that two things are guaranteed in life, death and taxes.
As it happens, I just renewed my life insurance this week to help my family in the event of my untimely death.
Coincidentally, our Premier Prentice, was musing about a sales tax and, with our provincial opposition near death, I am hoping to find some form of insurance to slow or prevent this.
Mr. Prentice has done a masterful job thus far in piloting this government and the PC Party. I expect the recent floor crossing of her majesty’s loyal opposition has not hurt his ability to govern either.
The pathetic situation of the Wildrose opposition does, however, affect the rest of us as common Albertans.
We often take opposition for granted especially in this province but I think we all agree the Wildrose had done a yeoman’s job the past few years.
Because I always take a conservative opposition over a socialist or liberal one, the situation was ideal – a centre-right governing PC Party taking direction from the further right Wildrose Party.
Now back to the future and the Wildrose is decimated, without a capable leader, there is a provincial election looming and the Premier is talking about raising revenue for a government facing a harsh deficit.
At the same time, oil is hovering in the $40s and the outlook is for this to remain constant for a while. Not a very reassuring picture.
Mr. Prentice will talk about previous governments and their mishandling of revenues, spending, and of course forecasting. I won’t disagree with him.
The only sticking point is that it was his current caucus group that brought us here.
Intentions being what they are, I do think that with Prentice as CEO we have a chance to right the ship in due course.
The problem comes when we are headed into an economic slowdown and politicians begin to talk about tax increases.
You don’t have to come from the London School of Economics to figure out this won’t be helpful.
When we faced this almost a generation ago, a guy by the name of Klein had a different approach – it was to cut spending and tighten belts.
Of course, this is also an unpopular move, especially with unions, and those that are dependent on government programs.
Going into elections, politicians like to be popular and cutbacks and increased taxes are not promises they like to make on the campaign stump. Given the current circumstances, tough choices will have to be made.
On a brighter note, interest rates have almost never been lower.
Now does that mean we borrow our way out? Not exactly, but I wouldn’t leave taking some debt on while we start to tighten our belts.
If Prentice wants to reform our tax structure, go ahead and review it. I love the flat tax but I am not running the province so if he wants to change it, let’s go to the table and look at it.
Back to the belt tightening, we all know this will start at the top - politicians must lead by example.
A cut to pay and pensions for politicians would be a start, followed by a department-by-department exam of what is needed and what is wanted. Once the needs are determined, start reducing or eliminating the wants.
When we see this sort of approach taken, it puts us more at ease with the challenges of restructuring. I always say Alberta is a big business and it has to be run as though it is the same.
I know the Wildrose is trying hard to remain a good opposition, and considering they have been gutted by a few politicians with questionable morals, they are trying to keep pressure on the government.
At this time, however, I would challenge everyone out there to get on board and let your favorite elected official, floor-crosser or not, hear from you. The old Wildrose group talked a great game.
Now that many of them are in a position to make policy, let’s see how wise their December decision was for Alberta!
