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Alberta election result could be be damaging to economy

The premiers of Quebec and Ontario will soon have to start worrying about where the money for their equalization payments will come from.

To the Editor,

Re: Alberta vote is a shakeup, Editorial, May 19.

I doubt Alberta’s election result will “prove to be a seismic shift in Canadian politics” despite the federal NDP’s Tom Mulcair telling everyone it will.

Obviously, the Alberta NDP’s promise to raise corporate taxes had more appeal to voters than Jim Prentice’s plan to raise income taxes. The problem with Rachel Notley’s idea is that capital, being the most mobile of all commodities, started leaving the province right after the election. If corporations don’t like the tax structure in one place they’ll move to another. While that may benefit Saskatchewan and B.C., guess to whom Notley will have to turn to raise revenue?

Notley’s favouring one oil pipeline over another is also odd and although she wants more of Alberta’s oil processed in Canada, she doesn’t mention the billions of dollars required to build even one more refinery. Besides, refineries operate on the thinnest of margins and would have to pass the costs on. Because the market is globally competitive, international customers won’t pay those costs, so who will?

The fun part in all of this is that the premiers of Quebec and Ontario will soon have to start worrying about where the money for their equalization payments will come from.

Jim CorderNanaimo