Taxpayers Federation puts Mayoral Candidates' Platforms to the Test

WINNIPEG: A civic election performance evaluation by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation found that only one out of five Mayoral candidates makes the grade when it comes to meaningful tax relief for voters. With an election campaign more concerned with the whereabouts of Mayor Glen Murray, the all-important issues have been left behind.

"This has been a relatively uneventful election campaign, seriously lacking in an effective discussion of the issues that the taxpayers of Winnipeg are facing," stated Provincial Director Adrienne Batra. "Worst of all is the Mayor's failure to live up to his previous election campaign promise to cut property taxes by 10% for all homeowners in Winnipeg," added Batra.

Top honours go to candidate Al Golden who received a B . "Mr. Golden was given the highest mark in the class. He has talked about, and has committed to, reducing property taxes and eliminating the business tax without raising levies in another area. Golden also took his tax relief pledge a step further by promising the elimination of the amusement tax," said Batra.

Chris Henderson and Nick Turnette both receive a D. Mr. Henderson is severely lacking on knowledge of the issues. Turnette on the other hand is a veteran to the election process as this is his 20th campaign, nonetheless he does not score high because he believes that the City should be getting a bigger piece of the income tax pie. "When the CTF inquired into Mr. Turnette's views on property and business taxes, he stated that he is not necessarily committed to reducing either one," Batra pointed out.

David Lettner, has a good grasp of the issues, yet he stated that the only way to cut property and business taxes is to create another tax - the Capital region fuel tax. Lettner stated that "a promise made is a promise kept," which is easy to say if you don't make any tangible promises. For his lack of conviction, Lettner gets an F. Winnipeggers already pay too much in fuel taxes yet receive no benefits from Ottawa.

Mr. Murray gets an F for failing to cut property taxes for all homeowners in Winnipeg, failing to shut down street parties and failing to eliminate the business tax. But Murray's biggest failure was his lack of commitment to the democratic process by not showing up to certain Mayoral forums. "If the mayor was so proud of his record , why wasn't he willing to shout it from the rooftops " asked Batra.