I always wondered how former premier W.A.C. Bennett managed to name the legendary dam on the Peace River after himself more than a half-century ago.
It seems a bit much.
Bennett deserved to have it christened with his name, no doubt.
But that’s the kind of decision that should be engineered so that it looks like somebody else’s idea. Then you as premier bashfully accede and gracefully go along with it.
Or better yet, wait until you’re dead for it to develop.
But Bennett, who used to criticize such ego-tripping, named it after himself in front of 2,000 guests. No other premier in modern times has stepped up to the cameras at a ribbon-cutting and proudly proclaimed the highway/hospital/sewage pumping station will be named in their own honour.
It just doesn’t happen.
On Monday, though, Conservative Party of B.C. Leader John Rustad refreshed the concept. He unveiled a big new promise for a tax break for nearly everyone, and called it “the Rustad Rebate.”
No focus groups or public engagement. No contest in schools to get the kiddies involved.
“John Rustad Announces Bold ‘Rustad Rebate’ Plan…” was the headline on the news release.
The promise is to allow renters and homeowners to deduct up to $3,000 a month in mortgage or rent payments from their taxable income calculations. It would take effect over four years, starting in 2026 at a rate of $1,500 a month.
Subtracting tens of thousands of dollars from taxable income would save the average person roughly $1,600 a year in taxes, he said. People earning up to a quarter-million dollars a year would qualify.
He said the average rent in B.C. is now $2,400 and the average mortgage is $2,900, so the rebate would cover the vast majority of housing costs.
It would subtract about $3.5 billion a year in provincial revenue and comes on top of a promised Conservative carbon-tax abolition that would cost billions more.
Rustad contrasted it with the NDP’s promise to give all renters a $400-a-month tax credit to help affordability. That promise languished for a few years and finally arrived with income limits that reduced eligibility.
He said his promise is part of a “systematic attack on all the cost pressures in modern life.”
The NDP operating deficit for the current year is now estimated at $9 billion, up a billion in less than a year. Rustad has confidently predicted it will actually be in the $10 billion to $12 billion range when the books close.
So while the rebate idea will be popular, its impact on the treasury is particularly significant.
(Mental note: Find out what a Conservative government would call the Site C dam.)
Just So You Know: Rustad was much more reticent Monday on another topic — a new example of his unorthodox views on vaccines unearthed by the NDP.
The NDP posted a July video of him — reportedly at a meeting of former civil servants who refused to get shots — saying: “I’ve had three shots … I wish I hadn’t, quite frankly.”
He said he talked to provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry early in the pandemic — when he was a B.C. Liberal MLA — and changed his thinking.
“I realized that — wait a second, something doesn’t seem to be quite right … especially when we got into the mandates on vaccines.”
He referred at one point to “the so-called vaccine, the mRNA shots.” (The kind that don’t use the actual virus.)
“I started to realize it wasn’t about … herd immunity or trying to stop the spread, it was more around shaping opinion and control on the population.”
Pressed by reporters at the “Rustad Rebate” news conference for more details on those views, he turned shy and dodged six questions about his anti-vax views.
His only direct response was: “One of the things that bother me the most about Dr. Bonnie Henry is the fact that she would not let our unvaccinated nurses and doctors back into the system.”
(She eventually dropped the mandate, three days after Rustad made the remarks in the video.)
Apart from the medical argument, the curious thing about Rustad’s intention to fire her is that he is taking on an official who at one point was adored by the public and still has much respect.
He’s sticking to his principles, but it is a big political gamble.
