This week, Premier Jim Prentice announced that a PST could be on the table.
I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised, as we elected the highest per capita spending government in the nation.
In the 2012 election debates, our MLA Jeff Johnson said we needed to run deficits as we were still in the recession.
The price of oil at that time was just over $100 per barrel.
Johnson and this provincial government seemed then, as they are now, quite happy to spend like drunken sailors running up a tab and asking our children to pay for it.
Simply put, they wasted a generation of wealth and now are faced with tough times.
Now, Prentice is still in his honeymoon as Premier. Early during these honeymoons, premiers get a chance to show us what they are made of.
Klein did and so did Redford. So who is this Jim Prentice?
Prentice in the federal Conservative party was branded a Joe Clark Tory and a Red Tory which, during the PC leadership race, he did his best to shake.
We all know that in Alberta provincial politics, liberals that want a realistic chance to be in government just brand themselves as red Tories and do their best to blend in.
If Prentice’s first major move as a premier is to bring in Alberta’s first provincial sales tax, he will be showing his true colours.
Albertans, I think you are just getting to know our first liberal premier since 1912.
The simple reality is that we need austerity, cut backs and putting an end to corporate welfare before we need to increase the province’s revenues.
Prentice, stay out my wallet.
Rusty Bellamy
Athabasca
