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The spectre of an Alberta provincial sales tax is back on the table.

Not from the NDP or the Liberals — but from the Alberta Party.

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“As the downturn moves into its third year, Alberta is at a crossroads,” party leader Greg Clark told a news conference Monday. “We can no longer afford to avoid difficult conversations or to rule anything out, even if it’s politically unpopular. All options should be on the table.”

One of those options is a provincial sales tax.

“I’m absolutely open to considering that,” he said, cautioning that he’s not calling on the Alberta government to introduce a sales tax. “I don’t trust the NDP with a PST, I’ll say that, because the NDP have shown that they’re unwilling and unable to constrain government spending.”

Clark made his comment in the legislature’s Media Room, the same venue where over the years a litany of politicians — including finance ministers — have declared a provincial sales tax was “on the table” during downturns in the economy, only to throw it off after a public backlash.