Article content

There’s a sharp message for Premier Rachel Notley in Tuesday’s defeat of the Manitoba NDP. Tell the whole truth about taxes.

Three years ago Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger raised the provincial portion of the sales tax by one point, to eight per cent from seven.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Braid: Manitoba NDP goes down with a message for Notley Back to video

He had promised during the 2011 election campaign not to do that. Selinger paid for his transgression ever afterward. On Tuesday, his whole government paid.

Notley, of course, is creating a massive carbon tax that was not specifically mentioned during her election campaign.

It’s obviously worse to do something you promised not to do, than it is to do something you just sort of neglected to mention.

But the political impact is much the same. Notley’s credibility is weakened. When the premier vows not to bring in a sales tax in this term — that is, before 2019 — Albertans are entitled to say, oh, is that so?

Notley responds to every tax criticism by saying the province still has Canada’s lowest tax regime by far.