British Columbia Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair has adopted some of the rhetoric that American Democrats are using south of the border.
Instead of calling for a repeal of former President George Bush’s tax cuts, however, Sinclair is calling on Premier Christy Clark to roll back former Premier Gordon Campbell’s tax cuts.
“I’m for raising taxes where it’s appropriate,” Sinclair told Business in Vancouver October 4. “There’s a stupidity about cutting taxes. We’ve seen that for the last 10 years in B.C. We cut corporate taxes by $12 billion.”
Campbell cut income taxes 25% in 2001 on the first day he was in office. His government then reduced corporate income taxes and eliminated the corporation capital tax.
“If he hadn’t given those tax cuts we’d have a balanced budget this year,” Sinclair said. “We can’t afford tax cuts.”
Sinclair said that he sees NDP leader Adrian Dix “once in a while” but that he’s not sure whether his call for higher taxes will resonate in the NDP’s next election platform.
Glen Korstrom
@GlenKorstrom