BY RICK BELL, CALGARY SUN
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, left, meets with Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Calgary, Alta., on Monday, July 6, 2015.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Stephen Harper throws down the gauntlet. Premier Notley picks it up.
Harper fires a missile Notley’s way though it’s clearly meant for federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair.
The Conservative leader takes aim at the provincial NDP for being “incapable of producing a budget” while raising taxes — a corporate tax hike and a progressive income tax scheme where tax rates go up on yearly taxable income over $125,000.
The Conservative leader calls the result a “disaster” and says it’s been rejected by Albertans.
On Tuesday, Notley returns fire. The premier says she is “protecting the jobs and incomes of regular working families rather than that of wealthy Conservative friends and insiders.”
Ouch.
Notley says her NDP government replaced “regressive taxes with better ones.”
She says they threw out the health care tax proposed by the Prentice PCs.
The premier says Alberta now has “normal corporate taxes” and a “normal progressive income tax system” like other provinces in Canada.
Notley adds Albertans still have the lowest provincial tax load in the country.
Joe Ceci enters the fray, fresh from a meeting at the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, not exactly an NDP crowd.
Ceci is the Alberta NDP budget boss and brought in the tax measures.
“He’s electioneering,” says Ceci, accusing Harper of whipping things up.
“Everybody understands what elections are all about. They’re for saying things that get the attention of the populace. While they may not be accurate they do get people’s attention.
“In many ways there have been lots of people pleased with what’s happened in Alberta. I listen more to that than I do some other things.”
As in, what Harper says.