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Premier Rachel Notley’s budget will be as divisive and controversial as Ralph Klein’s budgets of the mid-1990s.

The Klein budgets were the last time Alberta faced a massive debt crisis because oil prices and royalties cratered. Klein slashed the salaries of government workers. He hacked infrastructure spending.

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Notley’s way is the ideological opposite: keep paying all the government workers and build more infrastructure than ever. This last item will be of great import to civic politicians hoping to build more mass transit, affordable housing units and green energy projects.

At the legislature Thursday, Mayor Don Iveson certainly seemed in an excellent mood. He said he was “very happy” about the government’s doubling of spending on affordable housing over the next five years, an infusion of $500 million. “It can create jobs quickly, which is great, and also help some of the most vulnerable in our province, which in turn helps us with justice and health-care costs.”

Which other Edmontonians will love the NDP approach? All those who are fully on board with buoyant public service salaries and with building more mass transit lines, bike lanes and social housing, along with funding the various other core programs and pet projects of today’s progressive political movement.